Intel announced today that its Fab 42 with a total investment of US$7 billion has begun full operations, which will greatly ease the current capacity crisis of 10nm chips.
This fab in Arizona, USA began construction in 2011. The original plan was to produce 450mm wafers with a 14nm process technology, and it was nearly completed as early as 2013.
However, in 2014, Intel at the time was very uncertain about the demand for 14nm chips, so it revised the plan and decided to turn to the 10nm process in 2016.
Due to the postponement of the 10nm manufacturing process, Fab 42 has not been able to complete the construction, which also caused the 14nm chip to be in short supply for a long time.
Industry insiders said that with the Fab 42 10nm factory put into operation, Intel now has 3 10nm factories (the other two are located in Israel and Oregon, USA), and the production capacity of 10nm chips will be increased by more than 50%.
