Intel announces major expansion in County Kildare, Ireland

MORE THAN 1,000 NEW JOBS are expected to be created by 2004 as a result of Intel Corp.'s recently announced expansion of its European manufacturing operations in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. The new one million-squarefoot wafer fabrication facility, designated "Fab 24," will include 135,000 squarefeet

Construction was scheduled to begin immediately at the Leixlip campus, which currently houses 3,000 employees. The facility produces Pentium 111 and Celeron(TM) processors as well as supporting chipsets.

At the June 19 announcement, Mary Harney, Ireland's Tanaiste (deputy prime minister), said, "Intel's arrival in Ireland in 1989 created a sea change in the perception of this country as a technology center in Europe and generated a very significant and substantial chain effect in the industrial development process."

In May, Intel announced another $2 billion expansion, this one to be undertaken at its Rio Rancho, N.M., facility. The project is expected to create between 51,000 new jobs. The Rio Rancho facility currently employs 5,200 people; when Intel operations started up there in 1980, it housed just 25 people.