Chipmaker Intel said it has reached an important milestone at its newest Irish manufacturing facility.
'Fab 34' is located at the company's plant in Leixlip, County Kildare and is being developed as part of a €17 billion investment which doubles Intel's manufacturing space in Ireland.
Work on the facility began in 2019 and it will be the first high-volume manufacturing location for the production of Intel 4 products.
This month, Fab 34 began running its First Full Loop silicon.
"This means that the fab has begun the process of running qualification silicon wafers from start to finish through consecutive process steps in the cleanroom," Intel said in a statement.
"This is a key step in the preparation toward ramping full production silicon," the company said.
Once Fab 34 is completed, Intel will employ around 6,500 people in Ireland.
Earlier this year, pay cuts for senior staff and a salary freeze for mid-level employees were announced at Intel Ireland as part of cost-cutting measures.
In January, the company confirmed that 30 Irish-based staff were facing compulsory redundancy and in December last year Intel announced that it had offered voluntary unpaid time off to a large portion of its Irish workforce in a bid to cut costs.
