Intel invests to start assembly operations in Costa Rica

The investment is expected to create over 200 new jobs in the upcoming months. Currently, the anticipation is that the company will start the beginning of these operations towards the second half of 2021, a press release from the Costa Rican lnvestment Promotion Agency, CINDE, reads. With the start of operations, Intel Costa Rica joins the Kulim site in Malaysia, the Chengdu plant in China, and the site in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which are the only Intel sites to perform global assembly & test operations, turning Intel Costa Rica into the first Latin American country site to perform such process. "The existing infrastructure, the synergy with operations already in place at the site, our talent, the free-zone regime and the legal environment, have given Intel a favorable option to expand its assembly & test capacity to Costa Rica," says Ileana Rojas, General Manager at Intel Costa Rica, in the press release. Within the microprocessor manufacturing process, semiconductor material wafers are sent to assembly & test. Every microprocessor is assembled in a package that protects it and enables it to connect to other components. Finally, its functionality is tested. The assembly and test operations will be carried out at the Intel Costa Rica campus in San Antonio de Belén and is expected to start in the second half of 2021. Assembly and test operations are part of Intel's Manufacturing and Operations Organization.