Recruiting in China

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor maker, began building its first computer-chip manufacturing plant in China, a $2.5 billion investment.

Intel Chairman Craig Barrett is hosting a ceremony today in Dalian, in northeastern China, on the site of what will become the company's first chip factory in Asia. Intel already has plants for testing and assembling products in other parts of China, the world's biggest market for chips.

Intel, which announced the project in March, aims to begin production at the plant by 2010. The factory will bring the Santa Clara, California-based company's total investment in China to almost $4 billion, Barrett said. The plant will give Intel better access to computer factories in China, as the company seeks to regain sales lost to Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Intel plans to employ 1,200 people at the Dalian plant in China, its first factory in a new location in 15 years. It will begin hiring this year, with most of the recruitment taking place in the second half of 2008 through China's universities, said Vice President Kirby Jefferson, who heads the plant that is also known as Fab 68.

The plant will ``be an integral part of our global manufacturing network, while bringing us closer to our customers and partners in China,'' Barrett said.

The Dalian plant will make chipsets, the supporting semiconductors that link Intel's main product, microprocessors, to the rest of the computer.

Intel also plans to donate 8-inch chip-manufacturing equipment to the Dalian municipal government and the Dalian University of Technology to help establish a 348 million yuan ($46 million) semiconductor technology institute, Barrett said.

It joins STMicroelectronics NV, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc. in building factories in China.