United States government restrictions on high-technology exports may torpedo Shanghai's hopes of attracting Intel's first plant that would make central processing units (CPUs) in Asia, an official newspaper reported.
The 21st Century Business Herald said Shanghai was competing with Malaysia and South Korea for the plant, which would make Intel's top-of-the-line products. Intel has 12 such factories in the world.
Ten are in the US, one in Israel and one in Ireland. It plans to build a 13th factory in Asia and initially considered China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines before narrowing the choice to the final three.
Intel officials in Beijing were unavailable for comment yesterday because of the Spring Festival.
'This is a very, very sensitive issue,' an industry source in Hong Kong said. 'Every time there's a Hainan incident these things get put on hold. Clearly a sub-micron facility is incredibly strategic to China.'
The biggest obstacles to Shanghai getting the CPU plant are US government curbs on high-technology exports to China, including the equipment and technology used to produce Intel's Pentium 4 (P4) chips.
