On the desert floor of the Phoenix Valley, Intel has poured more than $20 billion into a four-story manufacturing plant that is the centerpiece of the ailing chipmaker’s comeback bid.
Inside the building, known as Fab 52, the company is rolling out a new manufacturing process to make more powerful and efficient computer chips. The process uses the tools from ASML, the Dutch manufacturer of lithography machines, to make Intel’s cutting-edge semiconductors in the United States for the first time in nearly a decade.
During a factory visit last month, two of those $250 million machines sat largely idle while ASML engineers in sterilized white bunny suits worked on one. Two trailer-size footprints for additional machines sat empty nearby, a nod to Intel’s hopes it can eventually expand.
Intel has recently brought a string of potential customers through the plant in Chandler, Ariz., and pitched them on manufacturing their chips at Fab 52. But analysts say most chip companies want to see whether Intel can succeed in making its own computer chips before asking it to produce their chips for smartphones, artificial intelligence systems and other technologies.
The focus on the new facility underscores how critical this moment is to Intel’s future. Once an exemplar of Silicon Valley success, the company has fallen behind competitors as a chip manufacturer and designer. Intel was leapfrogged by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, after it failed to implement ASML technology. And it was dropped from Apple’s laptops after its chips struggled with battery life and performance.
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The post Intel’s Big Bet: Inside the Chipmaker’s Make-or-Break Factory appeared first on New York Times.
