Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant Intel Corp. said today it would invest $3 billion to build a new 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Chandler, Ariz., with construction to begin immediately.

The new factory, designated Fab 32, will begin production of leading-edge microprocessors in the second half of 2007 on 45nm process technology.

“This investment positions our manufacturing network for future growth to support our platform initiatives and will give us additional supply flexibility across a range of products,” said Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, in a statement.

“For Intel, manufacturing is a key competitive advantage that serves as the underpinning for our business and allows us to provide customers with leading-edge products in high volume,” he continued.

When completed, Fab 32 will be Intel’s sixth 300mm wafer facility. The structure will be approximately one million square feet with 184,000 square feet of clean room space. The project will create up to 1,000 new jobs at Intel’s Arizona site over the next several years. During the construction phase, more than 3,000 skilled workers will be hired to work on the project.

Intel’s four 300mm fabs are located in Oregon, Ireland and New Mexico. The company also has an additional 300mm fab currently under construction in Arizona (Fab 12) scheduled to begin operations later this year, and one expansion in Ireland (Fab 24-2) scheduled to begin operations in Q1 2006.

Additionally, Intel said it would invest $105 million to convert an existing inactive wafer fab in New Mexico to a component temporary test facility, to provide additional test capacity to the company’s factory network for the next two years and will result in an additional 300 jobs at the New Mexico site during that period.