Intel Corp is planning to invest another $600 million in Israel to expand its research and development (R&D) and confirmed it was spending $10 billion on a new chip plant and the first phase of construction has begun.
Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger announced the investment during his one-day visit to Israel as part of a European tour that included Germany and Belgium last week.
Intel is investing $400 million to turn its Mobileye unit headquartered in Jerusalem into an R&D campus for developing self-driving car technologies. Another $200 million will be invested in building an R&D center, called IDC12, in the northern port city of Haifa next to its current development center.
Gelsinger, on his first European tour since taking charge of the company in February, in a statement issued on Sunday predicted “a vibrant future for Intel and Israel for decades to come”.
In recent years, Intel has bought three Israeli tech companies – Mobileye in 2017 for more than $15 billion, artificial intelligence chipmaker Habana in 2019 for $2 billion and Moovit a year ago for $1 billion.
Intel has not disclosed whether the new plant will produce smaller chips, which can increase efficiency, but in March it said it was building two 7 nm chip plants in Arizona for some $20 billion.
Intel is the largest employer of Israel’s high tech industry with nearly 14,000 workers.