Intel announces $7 billion investment in Arizona factory and 3,000 new jobs from Oval Office
- Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich announced the investment to reporters while standing behind President Donald Trump
- Was a signal of how corporate America is adapting to a White House that is not reluctant to single out companies for praise or criticism
- 'Thank you Brian Krzanich, CEO of @Intel. A great investment ($7 BILLION) in American INNOVATION and JOBS! Trump said in a tweet afterward
- Obama had visited the Arizona factory in 2012 while it was under construction and he was campaigning for reelection
- He pointed to it as an example of the potential the U.S. manufacturing industry - factory never opened
Intel Corp chose the Oval Office as its backdrop to announce a $7 billion investment in a new Arizona semiconductor factory today.
Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich announced the investment to reporters while standing behind President Donald Trump, a signal of how corporate America is adapting to a White House that is not reluctant to single out companies for praise or criticism.
'Thank you Brian Krzanich, CEO of @Intel. A great investment ($7 BILLION) in American INNOVATION and JOBS! #AmericaFirst' Trump said in a tweet afterward.
Construction on a plant at the site began during Barack Obama's first term and was abandoned in 2014 before it ever opened. Now Intel says plans to invest in new computing technology there, creating 3,000 jobs when it is up and running.
More than 10,000 Arizonians will support the plant, Krzanich said.
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![Intel Corp chose the Oval Office as its backdrop to announce a $7 billion investment in a new Arizona semiconductor factory today](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209044129/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/21/3CF8A6D400000578-4205130-image-a-54_1486589847682.jpg)
Intel Corp chose the Oval Office as its backdrop to announce a $7 billion investment in a new Arizona semiconductor factory today
Trump said Krzanich called him a few weeks ago to say he wanted to meet to make a big announcement.
Krzanich noted that Intel has been working on the factory - its third in Arizona - for several years but held off on the investment until now.
He said he wanted to announce it at the White House as a sign of support for the 'tax and regulatory policies that we see the administration pushing forward.'
The company said in a release that the plant would be completed in three or four years.
In 2014, as Intel put off the opening of a chip factory at the site, a spokesman told Reuters, 'The new construction is going to be left vacant for now and it will be targeted at future technologies.'
Obama had visited the Arizona factory in 2012 while campaigning for reelection. He pointed to it as an example of the potential the U.S. manufacturing industry had.
Intel planned to make advanced microchips at the site but backed off the project after a 10 percent drop in global PC sales.
'Having hired tens of thousands of people himself, the president's keenly aware of what prevents businesses from being successful and creating jobs in the current economy,' White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
![Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich announced the investment to reporters while standing behind President Donald Trump, a signal of how corporate America is adapting to a White House that is not reluctant to single out companies for praise or criticism](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209044129/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/21/3CF8B47600000578-4205130-image-a-56_1486589875613.jpg)
Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich announced the investment to reporters while standing behind President Donald Trump, a signal of how corporate America is adapting to a White House that is not reluctant to single out companies for praise or criticism
Spicer noted as he took a victory lap on behalf of the president that 'President Obama by contrast visited this same factory site, where this factory will be built, during his last reelection visit in 2012, touting the government incentives that was supposed to bring back jobs that had been lost to Asia.
'President Trump knows that for business the real government incentives is the government restraining itself,' he said. 'For too many years Washington has smothered industry in this country under burdens and regulation. This administration has set out to free businesses from constraints of government bureaucracy and regulation.'
Trump, a Republican who took office on Jan. 20, campaigned on a promise to push for companies to keep or create jobs in the United States, rather than sending them abroad.
Intel announced less than a year ago that it would cut up to 12,000 jobs globally, or 11 percent of its workforce, as it refocused its business towards microchips that power data centers and Internet connected devices and away from the declining personal computer industry it helped found.
![Intel's Brian Krzanich (L) shakes hands with Gary Cohn (C), head of the National Economic Council and Reed Cordish, assistant for intragovernmental and technology initiatives. Cordish told reporters that the announcement was the latest show of confidence from CEOs in this administration and a 'validation of the president's policies and views'](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209044129/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/08/21/3CF8C36E00000578-4205130-image-a-55_1486589867128.jpg)
Intel's Brian Krzanich (L) shakes hands with Gary Cohn (C), head of the National Economic Council and Reed Cordish, assistant for intragovernmental and technology initiatives. Cordish told reporters that the announcement was the latest show of confidence from CEOs in this administration and a 'validation of the president's policies and views'
'Intel is very proud of the fact that a majority of our manufacturing is here in the US, and the majority of or research and development is here in the US, while over 80 percent of what we sell is sold outside of the US,' Krzanich said in remarks from the Oval Office.
Trump told him, 'We're very happy and I can tell you the people of Arizona are very happy.'
Intel was one of more than 100 companies that joined together to file a legal brief opposing Trump's temporary travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations.
But that issue did not come up during the Oval Office meeting, said Reed Cordish, a White House official in charge of technology initiatives.
Cordish told reporters that the announcement was the latest show of confidence from CEOs in this administration and a 'validation of the president's policies and views.'
'It's a wonderful statement for where we're heading, in terms of bringing manufacturing back to America,' he said.
The White House official said Intel contemplated the investment 'for over four years... even had tried to start' it, and they now 'have the confidence to proceed.'
'They've had this empty property for a long time. So the property's there, and now the will is there,' Cordish said.
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