Visitors in the clean room at the official opening in September of Intel's Fab 34 facility in Leixlip. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
Intel may remain the largest maker of chips known as central processing units in the US, but its focus remains on the PC and laptop industry, which has been in decline for some time. Adding insult to injury, Intel’s historic distant rival in the PC space, AMD, which has become the number two player in the mushrooming market for AI chips for data centres, is now twice its value.
The aim is to regain manufacturing market share that had been ceded in recent decades the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung. Intel’s outsourced manufacturing – or foundry – division made a $7 billion loss last year, up from about $5 billion for each of the two previous years.