Take a Look Inside Intel’s Chandler Expansion as Feds Prepare to Award Billions for Semiconductors

Article originally posted on AZ Central on April 11, 2023

With billions of dollars in federal funding up for grabs in coming months, Intel showed off construction progress at its Chandler campus, where nearly 30 cranes and thousands of workers are building two new “fabs,” or factories.

Intel officials and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., met Wednesday near the construction site where a groundbreaking ceremony for the $20 billion expansion took place in September 2021. The first new Chandler fab is expected to open sometime next year, though Intel hasn’t provided a more precise timetable.

It comes as another semiconductor giant, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., continues work on its own campus in north Phoenix. President Biden in December visited that complex, the site of a $40 billion investment, where the company eventually will employ about 4,500 workers.

The two projects have put Arizona on the map as a major center for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.

Making semiconductors or chips that power nearly all modern electrical devices is “among the most sophisticated manufacturing that we do anywhere,” said Kelly, who supported the Chips & Science Act. The legislation will make $39 billion available for new semiconductor factories and expansions.

“This will become one of the premier facilities in the world,” Kelly said of the Chandler complex, reiterating his prediction that Arizona stands to gain “tens of thousands” of jobs in coming years, helped by the legislation.

Kelly said he anticipated many companies including Intel will apply for funding, with the federal Department of Commerce opening the application process this month and with the first grant announcements expected by fall. Kelly said America’s ability to continue making advanced semiconductors and components also is critical for national security.

Much of the world’s chip supply currently is manufactured in Taiwan, which is on the receiving end of repeated threats from China. Japan and South Korea are other large producers, along with the U.S. and China.

Higher Demand, Increasing Sophistication

Semiconductors are used in more and more ways and in more products, from cell phones and video games to automobiles, medical equipment, aircraft and military weapon systems. Intel is among a growing cluster of manufacturers in the Valley that includes TSMC and Chandler-based Microchip Technology. On Semiconductor recently moved to new headquarters in Scottsdale but doesn’t make chips in Arizona.

“The market for our products will only continue to grow and accelerate,” said Jason Bagley, a senior government affairs director at Intel.

Kelly said the new Intel fabs will have more technological sophistication than the International Space Station where he was deployed while an astronaut.

The first of the two new Intel fabs in Chandler that is scheduled to open next year will join four others that already are operating on the 700-acre campus. Fabs take about three to five years to build, and the two new Intel factories in Chandler will open at different times.

Expanded Employment Ahead

Intel currently employs about 12,000 people in Chandler. The company will add around 3,000 more when the fabs open and support an estimated 15,000 other jobs in the area, in addition to 3,000 or so temporary construction positions. Some cranes at the site reach roughly 70 stories in height and lift trusses and other building components that can weigh more than 100 tons.

Intel claims solar and renewable energy will power the entire campus, with water conservation also a priority. Between recycling and water-restoration projects elsewhere around the state, such as paying to convert open canals to pipelines and funding farms with drip irrigation, Intel expects full water self-sufficiency by around 2030.

In addition to a favorable business climate and growing workforce, Kelly said the relative lack of earthquakes and other natural disasters make Arizona an attractive place to manufacture precision goods such as semiconductors.

Aside from wildfires, “Arizona has a remarkably low level of natural disasters,” Kelly said. For some companies, he added, it’s a factor in deciding whether to set up shop or expand here.