Intel says Israel Is fab-tastic

INTEL SAID IT has now invested more than $5.75 billion in Israel, since it set up shop here in 1985. In 2007, Intel's Israeli branch showed an impressive 18.4 per cent growth in exports, working out at $1.54 billion, the company said yesterday in Tel Aviv.

This figure makes Intel one of Israel's largest exporters and its largest foreign company. The company also claims that it has purchased $1.1 billion worth of goods from Israeli vendors.

At the press conference, Maxine Fassberg, Intel Israel's general manager and a vice president at Intel Corp said: "Intel Israel continues to grow, which will translate into a big drive to recruit workers in a variety of technological fields". Intel is already Israel's largest nongovernmental employer, with 7,300 workers in production and R&D.

Intel set up in Israel over 20 years ago and has since built several chip plants and research and development centers around the country. It has almost finished building its new $5 billion Fab 28 chip plant in Kiryat Gat, in Southern Israel, to replace Fab 8, Intel's long-standing plant in Jerusalem, which was the first ever Fab built outside of the U.S.A

Fab 28, being constructed just next to Fab 18, will be the second Intel second plant able to build 45 nanometer circuitry processors. Production in Fab 28 should start in the second half of 2008 and, due to a further grant by the Israeli government, Fab 8 will now be transformed into a die preparation plant protecting wafers from handling-induced defects before packaging. Intel intends to hire at least 100 new workers to work at its newly converted facility. Intel's R&D facility in Jerusalem will also stay open.

According to Globes, Intel has now received almost $1 billion in Israeli government grants and expects that figure to reach $1.4 billion when Fab 28 in completed. This would bring the total value of the tax breaks to about $150 million over the next 10 years.

Intel Israel also said that its Fab 18 plant in Kiryat Gat will now become part of Numonyx, a joint venture owned by Intel, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners. Numonyx makes flash memory for mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and computers. µ