14 DAY TRIAL // 65nm production of INTEL CPUs is coming to China. It's as simple as that, INTEL is currently in the process of launching a new plant in China. As far as I can tell, the main purpose of this facility is to build multi-core 65nm CPUs. INTEL was very quiet regarding the costs of the operation, but if we are to learn anything from some of INTEL's later built facilities, it will cost them roughly $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion USD. And that's just an estimated price, because some INTEL fabs managed to jump the $6 billion mark in the past.
Unofficial sources say that INTEL has already established a strong presence in the country with some 6,000 employees that are currently working in Shanghai and Chengdu, but due to the incredible economic potential of the country, the new fab will be completely independent from the other centers in China.
In fact, China is second when it comes to economical power, the only country that currently surpasses it is the U.S. but as you can see, that won't happen for long because more IT giants are starting to build new plants outside the U.S. Recently, INTEL has announced that they will extend some of the facilities of their upcoming Vietnam factory so this wouldn't be a first.
However, INTEL won't forget about the U.S. and Fab 32 in Arizona will be its first full facility built in the U.S. in quite a long time. At the same moment they will launch Fab 28 in Israel (2008). Rumors say that all these new factories that will enter mass production in 2008 will also possess 45nm facilities, because INTEL wants the transition period to be as fast as possible.