January 15, 2007
Intel and Microsoft bullish on China shops
Rumours that Intel will build its first Asian chip factory in China and Microsoft will begin selling its Xbox 360 console there as early as next month do have some substance behind them.
"We’ve said many times before we’d be interested in building a wafer fab in China," Chuck Mulloy, Intel spokesman, told me today.
"We haven’t announced any plans and this falls into the category of a speculative report."
The bulk of Intel’s chip manufacturing takes place in the US, but it has factories in the Irish Republic and Israel. It has assembly and testing facilities in Asia, including two in China, but a fab, costing upward of $2bn, would be its biggest investment to date.
The 360 has been available in Hong Kong since launch and, as far back as 2005, Microsoft announced it intended to sell the 360 in the rest of China, but has never given a timeframe.
More than 10m units of the 360 have been sold in 37 countries to date. The key factor determining the Chinese launch will be the approval of the government’s culture and information ministries.
