The company had ignored proofs of Alaa Badr’s online support of Hamas and made the Jewish Israeli his subordinate.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A former senior employee of Intel filed a lawsuit against the giant chipmaker Tuesday alleging he had been fired in April from its New York office after complaining about an antisemitic supervisor.

The Israeli ex-vice president of engineering had been placed in January under a vice president of customer success, Alaa Badr, whose hatred of the Jewish state was evidenced by his “liking” many anti-Israel posts on social media ever since the Hamas invasion of Gaza envelope communities on October 7 sparked the ongoing war, the court papers said.

The management move was made even though in late 2023 the Israeli’s former boss had filed a complaint with the company on his behalf over Badr’s approval of such posts as “Praise be to God, the trampling was done. May God bless you, our Qassams!” referring to Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, and images of Israeli soldiers being strangled by “Gaza.”

The Egyptian-born Badr also “pressured” his subordinate to tell him if other colleagues were Israeli and “sneered that there were ‘so many Israeli employees in our company,’” the suit stated.

“He was reporting to, and forced to interact daily with, an individual whom he knew would celebrate the murder, and even the burning alive, of his immediate family members,” the suit stated.

Although his dismissal had been couched as a cost-cutting measure, the plaintiff said that his position was then filled – by someone who espoused the same anti-Israel sentiments as Badr.

The fired man, who has served in the IDF, has asked to file his claim as John Doe due to his fear of the “significant danger of being subjected to harassment, threats, and physical violence,” if his name was published, said the suit.

“It is inexcusable that Intel not only condones this type of behavior but retaliated against a former (IDF soldier) for complaining about deeply disturbing tropes that were posted on social media by his boss,” the Israeli’s lawyer, Doug Wigdor, said in a statement. “This must stop.”

The lawsuit is demanding recovery of Doe’s lost pay and unspecified damages due to the violation of his federal civil rights and New York State and city human rights.

Badr and his own supervisor are also named as defendants in the case.

When asked for comment, Intel said it does not discuss pending court cases, but that “We have a longtime culture of diversity and inclusion and we do not tolerate hate speech.”

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The deal, announced in December of 2023, was slated to be the largest investment the international chipmaker has made in Israel so far. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Intel’s $25 billion chip factory in Israel has been halted, although the chipmaker said in a statement that it was ‘still committed to the region.’

In the last few days, Intel’s suppliers received notice to halt the delivery of materials and cancel contracts required to establish the chip factory.

According to Calcalist, Israel’s Ministry of Finance was already aware of the decision to stop the construction, with the financial news outlet speculating whether it was a delay or a cancellation of the deal.

“Is Intel’s new $25 billion factory in Israel in danger of being canceled?” Calcalist posed.

The $25 billion deal for the construction of the chip plant, announced in December 2023, was slated to be the largest investment the international chipmaker has made in Israel so far.

The factory, which was supposed to have been built in Kiryat Gat, would have meant $3.2 billion in incentives for Intel, with the chipmaker committing to purchasing $60 billion from Israeli suppliers.

As late as March, it was reported that OPC was expected to build a power plant for Intel with an investment of $900,000 million.

Idan Ofer, the head of OPC, signed a memorandum of understanding with Intel, and construction of the power plant was slated for completion by 2026.

It has also been reported that several Intel officials in Israel have moved to Ohio to work at the Intel factory that is being established there.

Intel, which has four development sites in Israel and employs 12,000 Israelis, has said that it is “still committed to the region,” not defining whether “region” meant Israel specifically or possibly another location in the Middle East.

In a statement, Intel said, “Israel continues to be one of our key global manufacturing and R&D sites, and we remain committed to the region.”

It continued, “As mentioned previously, the scope and rate of expansion of Intel’s production at the company’s sites around the world depend on a number of changing factors.”

“Managing a project of this magnitude, especially in our industry, usually involves schedule adjustments. Our decisions are based on business conditions, market dynamics, and responsible capital management,” it concluded.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal was “unprecedented.”

By World Israel News Staff

Intel semiconductor giant will build a new chip manufacturing plant in Israel in a deal worth $25 billion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, calling it the largest-ever international investment in the country.

The factory, scheduled to open in 2027, will employ thousands of workers at wages above the industry average, the Finance Ministry said.

The deal will include a significant the tax hike for the company, from the current 5 percent to 7.5 percent.

The company employs around 10,000 people in four cities in Israel: Haifa, Yakum, Petach Tikva and Jerusalem.

Intel Israel in 2022 posted record exports of $8.7 billion.

In 2017, Intel bought Mobileye for over $15 billion, still the largest investment in Israeli tech to date. In 2022, it also bought Israeli foundry Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion.

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Mobileye CEO is recognized for his industry-leading contributions to advanced driving assistance systems and other autonomous driving solutions.

By Brian Blum, Israel21c

Mobileye founder and CEO Prof. Amnon Shashua was honored by the Automotive Hall of Fame with the organization’s Mobility Innovator Award in Detroit’s Automotive Hall of Fame on July 21.

The Automotive Hall of Fame was established in 1939 to perpetuate the accomplishments of the early automotive pioneers including W.O. Bentley, David D. Buick, Louis Chevrolet, Walter P. Chrysler, André Citroën, Enzo Ferrari, Soichiro Honda, Armand Peugeot, Ferdinand Porsche, Louis Renault and Ratan Tata.

The Mobility Innovator Award, introduced in 2021, seeks to recognize “the outstanding work individuals have accomplished introducing new technologies and services that are redefining mobility.”

Shashua’s work with Mobileye certainly fits the bill.

He founded Mobileye in 1999 when “no one in the automotive industry believed that a single front-facing camera could achieve the level of performance and robustness needed for a system that would prevent or mitigate collisions,” Shashua said at the time.

Mobileye was acquired by Intel in 2017 for $15.3 billion. The Silicon Valley chipmaker was seeking a way into the autonomous driving market, which has since become Mobileye’s main focus.

Intel – through Mobileye – now competes directly with Apple, Waymo, Tesla and others. Intel announced at the end of last year that it planned to take Mobileye public in 2022 at an estimated $50 billion valuation.

“Amnon’s biggest contribution to the automotive industry was laying the groundwork for a safer, greener and data-driven future – decades before such a vision would be deemed anything but a fantasy,” Mobileye’s chief legal officer Liz Cohen-Yerushalmi said.

“I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that he has revolutionized the automotive industry forever,” she declared.

Shashua started his career at Hebrew University, where he is still active in the computer science department.

He has racked up a series of industry citations, including being named last year as Automotive Driving Executive of the Year by Automotive News.

In addition to being CEO of Mobileye and a senior vice president at Intel, he also cofounded OrCam Technologies, which develops wearable devices to assist the visually and hearing impaired; AI21 Labs, which uses artificial intelligence to improve the way we read and write; and One Zero Digital Bank.

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U.S. technology firm Intel announced it is acquiring Tower Semiconductor, an Israeli company which specializes in chipmaking.

The post HUGE: Intel to purchase Israeli chipmaker ‘Tower’ for $5.4b appeared first on World Israel News.

Employees face Jan. 4 deadline to get vaccinated.

By Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — Intel has told workers that unvaccinated people who don’t get an exemption for religious or medical reasons will be on unpaid leave beginning in April.

The California-based semiconductor company told employees last month they had a Jan. 4 deadline to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or seek an exemption, citing a government mandate for federal contractors.

The constitutionality of broad government mandates is up in the air. A federal court in Georgia blocked the contractor mandate earlier this month, but the government is appealing.

Intel INTC, -0.15% is for now leaving its policies in place, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

“We are closely monitoring the legal environment and expect it will take time for the case in Georgia, as well as other similar cases, to be fully resolved,” Intel said in a statement.

In a Dec. 7 memo to employees, Chief People Officer Christy Pambianchi told employees the Jan. 4 vaccine deadline remains in place.

She wrote that employees who aren’t vaccinated must seek a medical or religious accommodation and submit to weekly testing, regardless of whether they are still working remotely.

Intel will review employees’ exemption requests until March 15. Pambianchi said employees who don’t receive an exemption will begin unpaid leave on April 4 for at least three months but “will not be terminated.”

She said Intel will continue providing health care benefits to unvaccinated employees on leave.

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News comes on the back of Intel’s announcement to take Mobileye public in a deal that could value the Israeli unit at more than $50 billion.

By James Spiro, CTech

Mobileye has announced that it is adding Paris, France, to its autonomous vehicle testing program and adding its autonomous on-demand service to the city in collaboration with RAPT Group, the world’s third-largest public transportation operator. The news comes on the back of Intel‘s announcement to take Mobileye public in a deal that could value the Israeli unit at more than $50 billion.

“Autonomously driving the roads of Paris is yet another milestone on the way to realizing our vision of self-driving inclusive mobility,” said Johann Jungwirth, vice president of mobility-as-a-service at Mobileye. “We are happy to have not only gained the testing permit, but also strong partners in Paris.”

Mobileye’s permit allows the company to drive its autonomous robotaxis across the streets of Paris. The city, with complex road systems and high volumes of pedestrians and traffic, can pose challenges for human drivers and AVs in the best of times. Passengers who are part of the pilot will be some of the first people in the world to ride in a Mobileye AV and hail a robotaxi using the Moovit app (also owned by Intel) at the center of Mobileye’s MoovitAV consumer ridesharing service.

The collaboration with RATP will provide employees from Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann the ability to order or schedule a ride to work using the Moovit app four days a week.

“Urban mobility is inseparable from the issues of our time and must enable us to meet the challenges of the sustainable city,” said Alexandre Liot, managing director of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann. “Today it is essential to think about improving and transforming mobility, to prepare the future of city centers and allow Paris to continue its attractiveness. Therefore, as the French leader of department stores, we are proud to join forces with Mobileye and the RATP Group to participate in this innovative project which reflects on the transport of tomorrow.”

Côme Berbain, director of Innovation for RATP Group, added: “As a leading operator of autonomous mobility, we are very happy to offer to our client Galeries Lafayette a new mobility service by associating our know-how with Mobileye. This is an opportunity for the RATP Group to test a new use case, an autonomous car service for companies, but also to test the vehicle’s autonomous technology for possible integration on other transport modes such as a bus or minibus.”

The news that Mobileye will be extending its services to Paris follows the announcement that the company was testing its cars in New York City earlier this year, as well as test fleets in Detroit, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, China, and Munich which is planned for 2022. Moovit was acquired by Intel in 2020 and serves one billion passengers in more than 112 countries. Its consumer and transportation network will be used by Intel for Mobileye’s commercial driverless ride-hailing service.

Galeries Lafayette is a French department store offering premium luxury brands in fashion and accessories, decoration, food, and catering. RATP Group facilitates 16 million daily trips and is one of the largest urban transport operators in the world. For over 70 years, RATP has operated one of the world’s densest multimodal networks in Île-de-France.

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Intel, the largest private employer in Israel, with a total workforce of 13,750 in the country, is considered to be a manufacturing leader in the U.S.

By Meir Orbach and Hagar Ravet, Calcalist

Some 4,900 Intel employees at its Kiryat Gat factory woke up on Sunday morning with a weird sensation.

Their secure workplace was shaken by a single sentence uttered last Thursday by Intel CEO Bob Swan, who said that “we’re going to be pretty pragmatic about if and when we should be making stuff inside or making outside, and making sure that we have optionality to build internally, mix and match inside and outside, or go outside in its entirety if we need to.”

Swan’s words blend well with the global trend set by competing chipmakers to focus on development and leave the manufacturing for others.

The scenario in which the manufacturing at the Kiryat Gat factory in southern Israel is shifted to another facility is possible but probably isn’t happening any time soon.

Intel is talking mainly about using other manufacturers to back it up rather than let them seize control of the company’s factories. The difficulty the company has faced in supplying chips on time brought it to the understanding that it must outsource some of the production, whether as a complementary or substitutional source.

The big question now is what will happen if Intel falls in love with outsourcing and understands that its time as a manufacturer has come to an end?

Such a realization could lead the company to make a decision to sell its entire manufacturing line to similar chip giants or private equity funds that would then create a massive manufacturing conglomerate with at least one guaranteed client in Intel.

In such a case, the cloud that is currently barely hovering over Intel’s Kiryat Gat company and 4,900 employees will significantly thicken and the uncertainty will be real and clear.

Intel’s second-quarter report published on Thursday included an ominous announcement stating that the production of 7nm chips has been significantly delayed and will only hit the market in 2022 and not in 2021 as was planned, marking a delay of a year in the company’s roadmap.

That was followed by Swan’s words and the company’s shares dropped 16% on Friday, its worst trading day in 20 years.

Intel, the largest private employer in Israel, with a total workforce of 13,750 in the country, is considered to be a manufacturing leader in the U.S. While its value dropped by $41 billion in one day, competing chip maker TSMC of Taiwan, added $33 billion to its value and the likes of AMD and Nvidia also experienced significant increases.

Not all chip companies rely on self-production, with Nvidia and Qualcomm, for example, both using the services of TSMC. Intel’s announcement that it will look into outsourcing manufacturing was directly connected to the need to reduce the delay in the launch of the 7nm chips. But this announcement comes on the back of an already challenging time for the company.

Apple announced just a few months ago that it plans to use its own chips for its MacBook computers rather than Intel’s. While that wasn’t a significant financial blow for Intel, it certainly dealt a dent to its reputation.

While Intel’s quarterly report did include some good news, like an increase of 7% in the sale of chips for laptops and desktops as well as the upcoming launch of the 10nm chips, those were overshadowed by the bad news on the 7nm chips.

Many analysts saw the delay as a sign of surrender by the company that was for years considered an industry leader. The 7 nm chips constitute the next generation in the field and the growing concern is that such a significant delay will create a gap that Intel will not be able to bridge.

Should Intel begin to outsource its manufacturing it could affect Israel. Intel currently makes its 10nm chip in Kiryat Gat, but the company’s new and much talked about factory currently under construction was believed to be meant for the manufacturing of the 7nm chips.

Intel has not yet clarified whether outsourcing is intended to transfer full production lines abroad or only to strengthen existing production, but in any case, it is likely that plans in Israel will change accordingly.

Intel Israel without a manufacturing factory is just another R&D center like the ones Microsoft, Google, Apple, and any other tech giant has in the country. But the footprint created by Intel in the country goes far beyond an R&D center that employs mainly engineers and is based largely out of the center of the country, or maybe in Haifa.

There is no R&D center in Kiryat Gat and a company that only focuses on advanced technological development is out of touch with the main population.

The scenario in which Intel no longer has a factory in Israel is very distant, and even if it does happen, is probably several years away. But should that materialize, Intel Israel will be very different. It would likely mean that the company’s 4,900 workers in Kiryat Gat would become employees of TSMC or another company that sets its sights on Intel’s manufacturing facilities.

The State of Israel has so far funded Intel Israel’s factory in Kiryat Gat to the tune of billions of shekels and is also at the center of its ongoing significant expansion with backing of NIS 500 million ($146.5 million).

It did so with guarantees from Intel that it will keep the factory in Kiryat Gat.

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It is important to note that the transaction was completed virtually, the entire process was done via Zoom video calls, including the signing and the company assembly that announced it.

By Hagar Ravet, Calcalist

“From our perspective, this deal happened very quickly,” Nir Erez, the CEO and co-founder of Israel-based Moovit App Global Ltd. said in an interview with Calcalist on Tuesday, a day after his company was acquired by tech giant Intel for nearly $1 billion.

“Intel invested in Moovit in 2018 and it has taken on an important role in its operations ever since, and Erez (Dagan, Mobileye’s Executive Vice President of Products and Strategy, HR) sits on the board. They knew what was going on in the company and met with other partners. The process rapidly shifted gears — We received the offer a month ago and had to reach a decision quickly.”

“We have been working on autonomous driving for quite a while and have accumulated many assets that enabled us to make autonomous driving possible like it has never been before. But the way to integrate it into the existing transportation fabric requires insights into patterns of supply and demand that are very local and very dynamic, alongside a set of operative functions. These two critical factors are what Moovit provides,” Dagan added.

What will the company’s employees gain from the acquisition?

“I don’t want to go into details because we don’t know what they are yet, but Intel and Mobileye are looking at long term objectives and want to make sure everybody stays on. Part of that is ensuring that employees are well rewarded,” Erez said.

How did the employees react?

“They were happy and excited. It is important to note that the transaction was completed virtually, the entire process was done via Zoom video calls, including the signing and the company assembly that announced it. It was very exciting when more than 200 people joined the call yesterday to hear Amnon Shashua’s announcement speech. It also allowed all families to take part,” Erez said.

For the first five years of its existence, Moovit operated as a free app, enabling users to plan public transportation routes. In 2018, the company found a new way to monetize by gathering public transport data and offering it to local authorities and transportation providers.

“We have the most widespread infrastructure in the world when it comes to public transportation products,” Erez said. “When we started, only 15% of that information was available. We also have the ability to gather information on people’s needs. Both types of data are critical to running smart city transportation. At the end of the day, when Mobileye turns autonomous vehicles into a service, it needs to know what people want.”

You work with companies like Uber and Lyft, what is the difference between their needs and those of a company like Mobileye?

“Mobileye’s needs were different. For example, Mobileye and Volkswagen have a service that will run in Israel and they needed analyses to decide which routes to run it on. Other organizations require different services.

And what did they and your other partners say about the acquisition?

“I have yet to answer all the emails, but we did not get any problematic responses, on the contrary, everyone congratulated us on the deal,” Erez said.

In the interview, Dagan emphasized that, even after the acquisition, Moovit will continue to provide service to its users and customers: “Moovit can be looked upon as an organization that has taken on the broad task of digitization of urban solutions. The integration with Mobileye will add a layer of automation, both to the end users and our transportation partners. Moovit’s partners will only benefit from the new package because we will add a lot of new services. For example, the insights needed to design an efficient and effective service for transportation providers, especially for those with limitations such as route selection.”

Will all these new services you mention be available to all the users?

“We will continue to establish Moovit as a marketplace for our network of partners,” said Dagan.

Did recent events, namely the coronavirus pandemic, change anything in the way you operate?

“Covid-19 has increased the need to update information on a daily basis, people start their day uncertain about what’s working and what’s not and we’re practically the only organization that is able to provide daily updates in many places in the world,” Erez said. “The number of public transportation users has decreased, but vital workers still had to be transported and as a result, we received interest from private companies such as banks, and it has shifted our focus. Even now, when there is a feeling that things are starting to go back to normal, there is still a lot of uncertainty about what’s running and what isn’t.”

Do you use public transportation?

“Wherever I can. In fact, I often bet other people that I can get to a restaurant using public transportation faster than they can and I’ve won quite a few free meals this way. I’ve collected nearly 35 magnetic public transit cards from all over the world.”

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Intel plans to combine Moovit with Mobileye, a self-driving car specialist that Intel bought for about $15 billion in 2017.

By Associated Press

Intel is buying transportation-planning service Moovit for $900 million as the world’s largest computer chip maker moves further down the road in its effort to build self-driving cars.

The deal announced Monday gives Intel another tool to use in its push to become a major player in the race to create the technology needed to build fleets of taxis that will be able to transport passengers without a human driver behind the wheel.

Moovit, an 8-year-old company based in Israel, makes an app that compiles data from public transit systems, ride-hailing services and other resources to help its 800 million users plan the best ways to get around. Intel plans to combine Moovit with Mobileye, a self-driving car specialist that Intel bought for about $15 billion in 2017.

Since that deal, Mobileye’s revenue has ballooned from $210 million in 2017 to $879 million last year. That’s a reflection of the big bets being placed on automated driving by both major technology companies, such as Google spinoff Waymo and Apple, and automakers such as General Motors and Toyota.

“Intel’s purpose is to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on earth,” said the company’s CEO Bob Swan.

Despite its rapid growth, Mobileye still only accounts for a sliver of Intel’s annual revenue of $72 billion.

Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, California, is upping its ante on self-driving cars at a time when many other companies are bracing for an extended economic downturn that already has thrust more than 30 million people into the unemployment lines.

But the stay-at-home orders imposed as part of the global pandemic have only made people more aware of how dependent they are on technology, including the Intel Corp. chips inside personal computers and a wide range of other devices.

While the recession will take a bite out of the technology industry too, the long-term picture for the biggest companies still looks bright. Deep-pocketed companies such as Intel, which is sitting on $11.4 billion cash, are expected to forge ahead with their investments in fields they believe will turn into gold mines.

Intel already acquired a stake in Moovit in 2018 when it was among a group of investors who injected $50 million into the startup. Since its inception, Moovit had raised more than $130 million from venture capitalists and other investors.

After Intel invested in Moovit, Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua joined the startup’s board of directors as an observer. Shashau will now oversee Moovit’s roughly 200 employees including its co-founder and CEO Nir Erez, who will become an executive vice president within the Mobileye group.

Intel’s stock gained 52 cents Monday to close at $57.99. The shares have fallen by about 16% from their 52-week high reached in January.

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The new building has within it 14,000 sensors to control things like lighting and temperature. 

By Arye Green, TPS 

Intel has unveiled its new development center in Petah Tikvah, which it considers to be the “smartest building in the world.”

The massive 75,000 sq. meter (approx. 800,000 sq. ft.) building will host 2,000 employees from the former Petah Tikvah and Ra’anana campuses.

Intel has invested NIS 650 million ($180 million) into the new campus that has approximately 14,000 sensors installed which facilitate smart lighting and temperature, doubling the standard number for a building of its size. The lighting and window shading will automatically change according to the natural light throughout the day.

Elevators in the building use smart algorithms to learn the travel patterns of elevator users to expect where they are likely to be at any given time, shortening waiting times.

Intel invested heavily in making the new campus more environmentally friendly. The building boasts extremely high energy efficiency, fairing 40 percent better than the industry’s standard. Its water system uses 75 percent less water than other buildings, and 95 percent of the building waste created during construction was recycled.

The parking lot includes 1,200 parking spots which are automatically monitored, following the occupancy and allowing employees to better plan their day with parking availability in mind.

The building will also include a gym, spa center, barber, music and playroom, synagogue and computer lab.

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Dan Catarivas, director general for foreign trade and international relations at the Manufacturers Association of Israel talks about Intel’s decision to open a new chip-making plant in Israel.

“It’s going to signal to other multinationals that Israel is a place to do business with,” he said, pointing out that the huge deal “cannot only be quantified in money terms.”

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Here is a recap of the top Israel news stories on January 29, 2019.

The post WATCH: Daily Israel News Recap – Jan 29, 2019 appeared first on World Israel News.

The giant American technology company will build 40 billion shekel plant at its Kiryat Gat site, adding thousands of jobs to the South.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon announced Monday night that Intel Corporation has agreed on terms for the biggest investment ever made by a single business in Israel. The company will invest 40 billion shekels ($11 billion) in building another chip-making plant next to its current one in Kiryat Gat.

“We have been working on this for a year, and here are the results: Intel’s global management has informed us this evening about their decision to invest another 40 billion shekels in Israel. This unprecedented decision will bring thousands of jobs to the south. This is massive news for everybody who cares about Israel, the Israeli economy and Israel’s citizens,” Kahlon tweeted.

Due to its expected massive injection into the Israeli economy, the government has agreed to partially offset the building costs. According to Yediot Ahronot, the grant will total about eight percent — 3 billion shekels – over 15 years. Intel will receive an additional five-percent corporate tax break.

The decision is now pending the formal approval of various government ministries as well as the Tax Authority.

This is not the first time that Israel has encouraged Intel with monetary benefits for investing in the country. This newly greenlighted venture comes on the heels of last year’s announcement that the company would be expanding its current production plant to the tune of 18 billion shekels ($5 billion) over two years. The Israeli government sweetened the deal then as well, with an NIS700 million grant and a five-percent tax rebate through 2030.

One of the conditions was that the global company would purchase over 3 billion shekels worth of local services and supplies as well as adding 250 personnel to its workforce.

Although not yet providing financial or other details of the company’s brand-new project, Yaniv Gary, Intel’s Vice President and its Israeli general manager, expressed great satisfaction with the deal.

“Our continued confidence in Intel’s future and excellent partnership with the State of Israel is at the foundation of the business plan we will submit,” he said. “This plan, when it comes to fruition, is expected to yield great economic and social value for Israel in general and for Kiryat Gat in particular.”

The global semiconductor manufacturer already employs almost 12,000 people, mostly in the southern town it has called home since 1999. They work both in research and development and in manufacturing. Its two current massive fabrication plants produce chipsets and microprocessors as well as servers, workstations, laptops and desktop computers. The new investment is expected to add over a thousand employees to its roster.

Intel’s 75-acre site in Kiryat Gat is almost like a small city unto itself. It has laundry and dry-cleaning services, a travel agency, ATM machines, a daycare facility and a fitness center, among other amenities. It is also involved in community life in various ways, including the sponsorship of technology education programs for teachers and computer clubhouses for students.

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With the help of a grant from the Israeli government, Intel is laying the groundwork for a massive expansion in Israel.

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

Tech giant Intel will begin to expand its operations in Israel.

The California-based company will receive a $185 million grant from the Israeli government in exchange for a massive expansion of its production operations. Overall, Intel will spend an estimated $5 billion on the project, according to Reuters.

The company is considered to be one of Israel’s largest employers. Currently, Intel employs approximately 10,000 people, with that number expected to grow substantially thanks to this latest approval for the grant by the Jewish state’s finance committee.

Intel’s first move is an upgrade for its Kiryat Gat plant in southern Israel, improving its manufacturing processes in the country.

Intel said its goal is to add 250 new employees to its staff. Many of Intel’s products are created in Israel.

Intel’s investment in Israel will be spent in the country. The tech giant expects to purchase 2.1 billion shekels in locally manufactured products throughout the state.

There’s still more room to grow according to Economy Minister Eli Cohen, who said last week that he believes Intel could expand further.

Intel has been in Israel since 1974. It started its Israeli operations in the northern city of Haifa, beginning with five people.

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Intel’s ultra-fast 5G network, expected to revolutionize the Internet, is being developed in Israel.

The post WATCH: Intel developing 5G internet in Israel appeared first on World Israel News.