Intel’s massive expansion in Arizona is finally operational

In it’s original announcement the company said that the Fab 42 expansion would – in three to four year – directly create 3’000 high-tech, high-wage Intel jobs for process engineers, equipment technicians and facilities-support engineers and technicians who will work at the site. Now that the company’s Fab 42 stands complete – which the chipmaker reportedly opened quietly earlier this year – Intel has already hired the 3’000 new employees over the past 12 to 18 months, which brings the total plant workforce up to 12’000, according to a report from the Phoenix Business Journal. Fab 42 connects three other Intel fabs at the Chandler plant, creating a massive network. According to the report, the fab uses the 10-nanometer process to manufacture Intel products, however in the original announcement about the expansion, the company stated that the expansion would target to use the 7-nanometer manufacturing process Keyvan Esfarjani, senior vice president and general manager of global manufacturing and operations at Intel, told the Phoenix Business Journal, that the shell for Fab 42 has been up since 2013, but that the project was delayed to make sure that it all came online when demand was actually there. And now, there’s actually a shortage of the products now being manufactured at Fab 42. “It has been the last six to eight months that demand has gone through the roof,” Esfarjani told the paper, adding that is partially due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the fab is not currently running at full capacity, something that according to Esfarjani will happen “in a very short while.”