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Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Intel's chief executive Brian Krzanich announced Wednesday the company will invest $7 billion to build a new factory in Arizona after meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Intel announced the factory, which will employ up to 3,000 people, will be built in Chandler, where the company has two other plants. The company said the new plant will add another 7,000 jobs with indirect impact.
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Krzanich told CNBC the company had been considering building the factory for several years but said the president's planned tax cuts and plans to roll back some federal regulations prompted them to push ahead with the plans.
"The people of Arizona will be very happy. It's a lot of jobs," Trump said at the White House.
The new facility will build 7 nanometer chips, a new generation of ultra-small circuitry. "This factory will produce the most powerful computer chips on the planet," Krzanich said.
The plans will complete a previous plant, Fab 42, that was started and then left vacant.
"America has a unique combination of talent, a vibrant business environment and access to global markets, which has enabled U.S. companies like Intel to foster economic growth and innovation," Krzanich said in a statement. "Our factories support jobs — high-wage, high-tech manufacturing jobs that are the economic engines of the states where they are located."
Intel was among 97 companies to file a legal brief late Sunday opposing Trump's temporary travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Intel employs more than 50,000 people in the United States and invested $12.1 billion in 2015 in research and development, according to a company release.
