Intel broke ground on two new plants in Arizona on Friday as part of its transformation plan to become a major chip manufacturer for external customers.

This $20 billion factory-known as Fab 52 and Fab 62-will bring Intel’s total number of factories in the Chandler campus in Arizona to six. They will use Intel’s most advanced chip manufacturing technology, and in the effort of the Santa Clara, California-based company to regain its lead in manufacturing the smallest and fastest chips by 2025 after falling behind rival TSMC. Play a central role.

The new Arizona plant will also be the first plant Intel has built from the ground up to reserve space for external customers. Intel has been manufacturing its own chips for a long time, but its turnaround plan calls for taking on work for external companies such as Amazon’s cloud division Qualcomm and deepening its manufacturing relationship with the US military.

“We want more flexibility in the supply chain,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in an interview with Reuters. He attended the White House’s talk on global chip shortages earlier this week. Meeting. “As the only company in the United States that can perform the most advanced photolithography process in the world, we will make great strides forward.”

Gelsinger said that it is too early to say how much capacity the new plant will leave to external customers. He said these factories will produce “thousands” of wafers every week.

Wafers are silicon disks for manufacturing chips, and each silicon disk can hold hundreds or even thousands of chips.

According to previous reports by Reuters, Intel’s rival TSMC also bought land to build its first US campus in Phoenix, which is not far from Intel’s location, where TSMC plans to set up as many as six chip factories.

Gelsinger said that Intel plans to announce another US campus site before the end of this year, which will eventually have eight chip factories.

News Source : Backtrack