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With Eyes on China, Intel Invests Billions In Mobile Ambitions

Posted by timothy on from the in-china-intel-gets-you dept.

itwbennett writes The allure of mobile devices has led Intel to take some uncharacteristic moves, partnering with Chinese companies to build some smartphone and tablet chips, and relying on third parties to manufacture those chips. Intel is betting the partnerships will accelerate its business in China, where smartphone shipments are booming. But the company wants to regain complete control over manufacturing, and on Thursday said it was investing $1.6 billion over 15 years in a China plant for mobile chip development and manufacturing.

8 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Big Mistake by TheEyes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And thus does Intel make the same mistake that hundreds of companies around the world have made before it: putting intellectual property in physical reach of the Chinese government. Fast forward five years and I'm almost certain we'll see Foxconn or some other Chinese company with ties to the Chinese government have a series of "research breakthroughs" that mysteriously parallel the exact technologies that Intel brought to its own plant, which is once again down for "inspection".

    It's not like this sort of thing hasn't happened already.

    1. Re:Big Mistake by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Perhaps. That is certainly a valid concern. However, the state of the art in this area is continually advancing very quickly. Just having an advanced fab in China does not mean that Chinese engineers are able to create the next generation chips and fabs. I think Intel's move is quite logical, and the danger of intellectual property theft not too serious in their case.

    2. Re:Big Mistake by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's definitely a risk, but I would be surprised if they're going to be using their latest-gen technologies there, partly for that reason. So Foxconn will be able to pilfer some older tech which is by that point less secret to begin with.

      Intel already has one fab in China, in Dalian, but it's on a 65nm process, several generations behind the 14, 22, 32, and 45nm processes that they use in their American fabs.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    3. Re:Big Mistake by Kjella · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's definitely a risk, but I would be surprised if they're going to be using their latest-gen technologies there, partly for that reason.

      You know, you could RTFA:

      The chips made in the Chengdu factories won't be based on the latest process manufacturing technology, McGregor said, adding that Intel wants to protect its intellectual property and won't transfer its latest manufacturing process to China.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:Big Mistake by cheesybagel · · Score: 2

      At this rate there will be EUV production lines nowhere.

    5. Re:Big Mistake by PaddyM · · Score: 2

      RTFA? Our ewe knew hear?

  2. Hard times for a former monopolist by JoeyRox · · Score: 2

    Intel is learning that success doesn't come as easy in business segments where your tried-and-true monopolist practices don't apply.

  3. Good Luck by sdguero · · Score: 2

    The high rate of employee turnover, politics, and finger pointing that goes on in the China office I work with (aprox 300 engineers in Beijing) is shocking. I don't know how a company can expect to be sucessful at doing real engineering and development work over there.