Intel opens Dalian chip factory

Intel broke ground on its first silicon wafer fabrication factory in Dalian yesterday, the South China Morning Post reported. The US$2.5 million factory, dubbed "F68", is one of the single largest foreign investments in country. The factory will produce chipsets using the either a 65- or a 90-nanometre process, and not utilize its most advanced technologies due to US restrictions on high-tech exports, but plans to make upgrades once US regulations change. China is expected to be the world's largest market for information technology by 2010.