By the end of 2004, Intel will have invested about 6 billion in the Republic over the last 15 years, a company spokeswoman said.
1989: Intel selected the Republic as its European manufacturing and technology headquarters. That same year, it began construction of a personal computer (PC) motherboards and systems factory at Leixlip, Co Kildare.
1991: Construction of the factory was completed. Also, Intel began construction of its factory Fab 10 in Leixlip, which was completed in 1993. Fab 10 officially opened and began producing Intel's Pentium processor the following year.
1995: The company announced plans to construct another factory in Leixlip, this one called Fab 14, which officially opened in 1998.
2000: Intel's network processing group opened a research and development facility in Shannon, Co Clare. The same year Intel chief executive Mr Craig Barrett announced that Intel planned to build another factory in Leixlip - wafer fabrication plant Fab 24.
March 2001: Construction at Fab 24 stopped in March of 2001, due to the global economic downturn. About 1,400 construction workers lost their jobs. Just over a year later, construction of Fab 24 resumed. The company expects the factory to open this summer.
2004: Earlier this year, Intel partnered with Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and Science Foundation Ireland to create CRANN, the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices.The effort focuses on the world of the invisibly small devices - just atoms across - that will form the foundations of the next information technology revolution.
Yesterday: Intel announced its 1.6 billion investment in building the factory it calls Fab 24.2 in Leixlip. The factory will produce the next generation of smaller and faster computer chips and create 400 new jobs. Today, Intel employs about 4,700 people in the Republic, counting direct and long-term contractors, the spokeswoman said. This is set to rise to over 5,000.
