I don’t know the particulars of the new Intel plant in Arizona that Intel CEO Brian Krzanich just announced with President Trump from the Oval Office. But I have followed the DC tech advocacy conversation for many years. And Intel does roughly 75% of its manufacturing in the United States and this has always been, not surprisingly, a key part of its corporate advocacy and marketing in the US. It thus seems highly likely that if Intel saw demand for more product it would choose to manufacture them in the United States.
Indeed, this factory was originally announced in 2011 and to be built in the same location. It was scheduled to be completed in 2013 but the build was eventually put on hold because of weakened demand in the PC market.
It’s worth noting that the original announcement for the Arizona plant in 2011 was done during a visit by President Obama to an Intel plant in Oregon. So Intel’s desire to add some presidential flavor to factory announcements is nothing new. But it again puts on display of corporate America’s evolving and bifurcated relationship with President Trump: consumer brands conspicuously keeping their distance or actively criticizing the President while manufacturing brands openly work with him to give him credit for hiring decisions which likely have little or nothing to do with him.
Intel is of course in some sense also a consumer brand. But since its products are almost always packaged within a piece of hardware produced by another brand – Apple, Lenovo, Dell, etc. – its consumer exposure is much less.
