Intel Corp., the world’s largest computer chip maker, will launch its Vietnam US$1 billion chip assembly and test facility in Ho Chi Minh City on October 29 after three years’ construction.

Intel Products Vietnam Ltd. Co. will organize an opening ceremony for the factory, which covers more than 46,000 square meters in Saigon Hi-Tech Park in District 9.

Intel is the first major foreign investor in high technology in Vietnam. The country’s Ministry of Investment and Planning issued an investment license in Feb. 2006 for Intel to build a US$300 million assembly and test facility to produce chips and computer parts. The chip manufacturer later increased its Vietnam investment to US$1 billion.

Construction started in 2007. This factory is now the largest computer equipment and manufacturing plant in Vietnam. Projected to employ 4,000 people, this site is the seventh assembly site in Intel’s global network. The other sites are Penang and Kulim in Malaysia, Cavite in the Philippines, Chengdu and Shanghai in China, and San Jose in Costa Rica.

Intel also has a sales and marketing office in Ho Chi Minh City, providing sales and support at the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), developer and end-user levels.

Saigon Hi-Tech Park is currently home to 44 local and foreign hi-tech companies, with total investment commitment of more than US$1.84 billion, generating over 10,000 skilled jobs.

In the US on Tuesday, Intel Corp. announced plans to invest up to US$8 billion in its US manufacturing facilities to produce next-generation computer chips.

Intel said the investment of six billion dollars to eight billion dollars over the next several years will fund deployment of its 22-nanometer (nm) chip manufacturing process across several existing US factories.

It will also fund construction of a new fabrication plant, known as a "fab," in the northwestern state of Oregon, Intel said in a statement.