INTEL Corp, which has a major plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare, has announced plans to build new chip plants in Fort Worth, Texas, Costa Rica and China at a total cost of nearly $1.7 billion (£1.02 billion).
The computer chip maker said it would build an advanced wafer fabrication plant in Fort Worth at a cost of $1.3 billion. The factory will make advanced chip products and will employ 800 people.
The company said its new plant in San Jose, Costa Rica, will employ 2,000 workers over the next few years. The site will initially consist of 400,000 sq ft of manufacturing space and is expected to cost more than $300 million.
At a news conference in San Jose, the country's minister of foreign trade said the Intel plant will operate in a duty free zone and will not be charged export taxes.
Intel also said it would invest $99 million in a plant in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone of Shanghai to assemble and test flash memory chips.
It will be Intel's first manufacturing plant in China and most of its output will be exported, the company said.
