Intel has inaugurated its Fab 9 factory, marking a significant stride in its $3.5 billion investment plan to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in New Mexico. The facility is geared towards the production of advanced semiconductor packaging technologies, with a focus on Intel’s groundbreaking 3D packaging technology, Foveros.
“Today, we celebrate the opening of Intel’s first high-volume semiconductor operations and the only U.S. factory producing the world’s most advanced packaging solutions at scale,” Intel’s Chief Global Operations Officer, Keyvan Esfarjani, said.
The Fab 9, alongside Fab 11x, represents Intel’s initial high-volume advanced packaging site in the United States. This strategic move aims to enhance product optimization, achieve improved economies of scale, and fortify the supply chain resilience within Intel’s global factory network.
Intel said Fab 9 is poised to fuel Intel’s next wave of innovation in advanced packaging technologies. As the semiconductor industry transitions into the heterogeneous era, leveraging multiple “chiplets” in a package, advanced packaging technologies like Foveros and EMIB (embedded multi-die interconnect bridge) offer a faster and more cost-efficient path towards achieving 1 trillion transistors on a chip, extending Moore’s Law beyond 2030.
Foveros, Intel’s 3D advanced packaging technology, revolutionizes processor construction by stacking compute tiles vertically, optimizing cost and power efficiency for Intel and its foundry customers.
The $3.5 billion investment has created hundreds of high-tech Intel jobs and generated over 3,000 construction jobs and an additional 3,500 jobs across the state.
Intel’s presence in Rio Rancho dates back to 1980, with a cumulative investment exceeding $16 billion. In the past five years, Intel employees have volunteered over 65,000 hours, and the company, along with the Intel Foundation, has donated over $6.5 million to support local nonprofits and schools since 2018.
