The Chinese government has given Intel permission to build a $2.5 billion chip-manufacturing plant in Dalian, on China"s northeastern coast. According a Chinese announcement on China"s NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) website, Intel plans to build a plant with a monthly production capacity of 52,000 chips that will produce semiconductors, including microprocessors, on 300-millimeter wafers using a 90-nanometer manufacturing process. The planned plant will be the first constructed by Intel in China, and it will operate along with test and assembly plants in Shanghai and Chengdu, a city in southwestern China.
While a planned plant in Dalian that uses a 90-nanometer process technology would lag several generations behind the most advanced technology used by Intel, the plant would still rank among the most sophisticated in the world. Nonetheless, I fail to see why Intel would bother investing such a large sum if it isn"t going to help them stay on top.