Intel breaks ground on $20B chip factory in Chandler

Intel breaks ground on $20B expansion project in Chandler

Intel broke ground on new chip factories at their Chandler campus. The new project will cost $20 billion. FOX 10's Danielle Miller reports.

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Construction is now underway on the largest private sector investment in Arizona's history.

Intel broke ground on its new $20 billion project on its Ocotillo campus Friday morning.

"This builds on 40 years that Intel has been in Arizona," Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger said.

Intel once again is investing in Arizona with its two new leading-edge chip factories. The project spans 670,000 square feet.

"If you want to get an indication of how big it is, if you look at this [current] facility, our new facility is three times larger. They're going to go down about 60 feet in the middle and then we're pouring about 400,000 cubic yards of concrete, 40,000 tons of structural steel going in," said Dominic Greensmith, the director of construction. "That's about eight Eiffel towers so it's phenomenal size, but inside the building, we'll have hundreds of miles of cable and pipe. These are the most advanced buildings in the world."

Once complete, the Ocotillo campus will house a total of 6 fab factories. This new project is said to create 3,000 new Intel jobs, 3,000 construction jobs and indirectly support 15,000 additional jobs in the state.

"For every job Intel creates, there's 5 additional jobs from distribution to vendors to supply chain. It's a good day for Arizona. We're breaking out nationally and internationally as the place to fabricate semiconductors," Governor Doug Ducey said.

With this new addition, minimizing their environmental footprint was top of mind.

"The factory that you see here and that we're building is powered by 100% renewable energy. So all of the power we use is renewable," said Todd Brady, director of public affairs and sustainability with Intel. "In addition, we just built a massive water reclaim facility. Water from our factory goes to the facility where it can be treated and cleaned and then reused at Intel. That's up to 9 million gallons of water a day we can do that with."

Construction is said to be complete by 2024.