US chipmaker Intel will invest another $208 million into its Malaysian operations, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said, further bolstering the country’s role in the global semiconductor supply chain.
Malaysia is the world’s sixth-largest exporter of microchips, and commands 13 percent of the global market for chip packaging, assembly and testing.
Intel’s decision was “based on confidence in the country’s long-term plans”, Anwar posted on Facebook on Monday night, saying he had met Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan earlier that day.
“Intel announced an additional investment worth 860 million ringgit to make Malaysia its assembly and testing operations center,” he said.
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In 2021, Intel pledged an investment of $7 billion to build an advanced chip packaging plant in the northern Malaysian state of Penang, the nation’s electronics hub.
Anwar said Monday the Penang factory was now “99 percent complete” and that Intel had expressed appreciation for the support of the Malaysian government.
The United States is Malaysia’s third-largest market for semiconductor exports.
Malaysia shipped 120 billion ringgit ($28 billion) of electrical and electronic products there last year, around half of which were chip-related, the trade minister has said.
AFP
