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Plans for Intel's Texas plant halted
By Bloomberg News
Special to CNET News.com
January 26, 2000, 12:25 p.m. PT
FORT WORTH, Texas--Intel halted plans to build a computer chip plant in Fort Worth, Texas, after failing to win tax breaks from state lawmakers, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Intel has spent $70 million on the site since 1997 and planned to employ as many as 5,000 people in five years. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company had pushed back plans to construct the plant twice before because of declines in demand for chips, the paper said.
Intel representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
Intel said yesterday it will start to break ground on a new fabrication facility for chips in Chandler, Ariz., a $2 billion investment designed to allow the company to adopt some of the latest silicon technology.
The Arizona fab will essentially become Intel's first factory for mass producing chips out of 300 millimeter wafers, said Mike Splinter, senior vice president at Intel. Today's silicon wafers measure 200 millimeters in diameter. By moving to the larger wafers, costs will drop while the number of chips produced per wafer will increase by around 30 percent.
News.com's Michael Kanellos contributed to this report. |
