Intel’s getting bigger in New Mexico — $650 million and more than 350 jobs bigger — and the microchip manufacturer’s expansion is music to the ears of university engineering schools around the state.
“They hire an awful lot of our chemical engineers, but also certainly electrical engeiners and mechanical engineers,” said Kevin Malloy, associate dean for research at the University of New Mexico School of Engineering. “This expansion…represents a very nice opportunity to keep the best and brightest of UNM graduates in the state.”
“There’s a lot of good opportunities for our (engineering) graduates in the state,” Malloy said, “but particularly at the bachelor’s level, they often have to leave the state to find jobs.”
Along with adding more than 350 new jobs over the next two years, Intel will add 40,000 square feet of space dedicated to producing 300 millimeter wafers at its Fab 11X microchip manufacturing plant in Rio Rancho, Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced Monday.
The $650 million upgrade — due for completion at the end of 2006 — will come from the conversion of an area of the Fab 11 fabrication plant, where 200 millimeter wafers are produced.
Roughly 20 percent of the new jobs are slotted to be filled by engineers, and the search for them has already begun, said Tim Hendry, Intel plant manager for Fab 11X.
The remaining 80 percent of the new jobs will be filled by technicians, and their hiring will begin April 2006, Hendry said. The average salary will begin at $35,000, more for engineers.
He said the number of expected new engineers is on par with last year’s hire of 60 to 70 engineers.
“Candidate availability seems to be good,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll have any problems filling our needs at the New Mexico site level.”
But Steven Castillo, dean of the college of engineering at New Mexico State University, said he’s concerned about supplying Intel with the engineers it needs.
He said that ten years ago, 8 percent of college-bound high school seniors were enrolling in engineering programs, and today it’s at 4 percent.
“I think we’re seeing some of that here in New Mexico,” he said, even though the number of graduates from his engineering school had risen by 12 percent since last year. “Universities absolutely have to partner with K through 12 to get more kids into math, science and engineering.”
Intel CEO Otelinni said growing worldwide demand for Intel’s products drove the $650 million conversion, which is funded by a $16 billion industrial revenue bond passed in 2004 by Sandoval County.
The 300 millimeter wafers – about 12 inches in diameter – to be produced at the upgraded plant are a cheaper way to manufacture semiconductors. They also use 40 percent less energy and water per chip produced from the wafers.