Dalian, Sep 9 (Xinhua) US computer chip giant Intel Corp. has begun to build its first chipset plant in Asia, which involves $2.5 billion in the first stage of investment.

Intel chairman Craig Barrett Saturday attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the plant, which is located in the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone in northeast China.

Barrett said at the ceremony that Intel chose Dalian because it was a perfectly suitable location for the plant. 'Intel will use its advanced equipment and technology to build an environment-friendly computer chip factory in the city, and promote the semiconductor manufacturing industry in China,' he said.

Steel structures and other framework have been in place at the factory covering 160,000 square metres.

The project, which was announced in March this year, is Intel's first chipset factory in Asia and part of its network of eight such facilities worldwide. The plant will go into production in 2010.

The city government of Dalian estimates the plant can provide about 1,700 jobs.



The new factory, dubbed 'Fab 68', will use 90-nanometre technology, 'an advanced chip-making method that measures its work 90 billionths of a metre and is the most advanced technology that the US government has licensed for export,' Paul Otellini, Intel's president and chief executive officer, said at a press conference in Beijing in March.



Intel's investment is part of growing foreign investment in China's computer and other technological fields.