Intel Gets Go-Ahead For $4 Billion Chip Plant In Ireland 104
alancronin writes "Intel has been planning to make its Ireland base one of three global manufacturing sites for its 14nm chips since May last year, and its now been given the okay by Ireland's lead planning agency. The new $4 billion plant will create around 4,300 jobs for the region in Co. Kildare, where Intel already has around 4,000 on staff. The two-year plan involves redeveloping its existing operation, expanding and shifting to make its smaller, more efficient 14nm process. Intel's plans don't stop there, however. It still plans to roll out 10nm products sometime in 2015."
Re:well, good. (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sure the reason they chose Ireland was because of the tax breaks...
Re:well, good. (Score:5, Informative)
absolutely, its ony 12.5% as opposed to the the UK and france where it is in the 20's.
also due to the recession and austerity, ireland is very competitive when it comes to wages.
logical choice.
Re:well, good. (Score:2, Informative)
QFT.
Bodies like the NDRC frequently back the wrong horse. The cream of Irish IT industry emigrates to greener pastures for a variety of reasons;
1) Salaries elsewhere like the US are far higher -- I could be earning double what I get here in the US (after currency conversion)
2) The standards of professionalism and skills are higher -- I'm currently working for an Irish software company; There is a severe technical deficit and a propensity towards small world aspirations i.e. "We'll never be big enough to compete with company X, so why bother trying?"
3) The standard of third level education is better -- CS degrees here are a joke.
Intel doesn't manufacture in Asia much (Score:5, Informative)
8 of their 11 current fabs are in the USA, one is in Ireland, one is in Israel, one is in China. The Chinese plant doesn't do CPUs, as far as I know, as it is an older process. They do some packaging in Asia, in Singapore if I remember correctly, but you don't tend to see those chips in the US and EU as they have closer packaging plants (in the US you mostly see products from the US packaging plant and their Costa Rica plant).
AMD also isn't Asia focused for CPUs. They have them manufactured at Global Foundries which has a fab in the US, Germany, and Singapore.
Discrete GPUs are all fabbed in Asia these days, specifically in Taiwan by TSMC. Now that may change as TSMC has been badly fucking up they may switch to someone else but for now, all TSMC.
In terms of other stuff, like mobile processors, it can vary highly. For example Samsung is a big player in that market and you might expect Korea to be where they fab. While that's true for flash, for processors it is most in Texas. If you have a phone with a 32nm Samsung processor, Texas ware probably where it was made.
Re:well, good. (Score:3, Informative)
And it took Japan many years to share that image. Both Japanese cars and electronics were considered as cheap crap when they started.
All countries which enter a new industry globally compete first on price. Then they improve quality.