Intel plans shift to 7nm with new plant in Oregon as it prepare to unveil new CEO

Work on new plant to begin as early as June 2019 while new CEO could be announced on Thursday

Intel is preparing for a shift to 7nm process manufacturing technology with a plant in Oregon under consideration.

That's according to the local newspaper, The Oregonian, citing insiders "familiar with the conversations" that have been going on in the company.

Intel already has four campuses in west Portland in Washington County, Oregon - with the first opened in 1974 - the largest of its facilities anywhere in the world. It is also metropolitan Portland's biggest private-sector employer.

It comes after Intel announced expansion plans for its Oregon facilities, but that announcement didn't go into details. Construction is planned to begin in June, according to The Oregonian.

"People in Oregon's construction industry say the company is lining up contractors and labor for the massive project, and some say Intel has told them it is committed to going forward. Others say Intel has hedged a bit in its conversations, indicating its plans depend at least to some degree on the global economic outlook," the newspaper reports.

The construction will last for around 18 months, followed by several months of equipment installation, making for an earliest probably opening date of mid-2021. By then, its rival AMD will already have been producing Ryzen and Epic microprocessors on 7nm technology using TSMC's facilities in Taiwan for two years.

Intel, meanwhile, is hoping to ramp-up 10nm output later this year after struggling to make the shift from 14nm to 10nm for around three years.

Despite that and the added competition from a resurgent AMD, Intel has been struggling to meet demand, especially for high-end microprocessors as the industry shifts towards cloud computing. Intel is also planning to invest in its plants in Israel and Ireland, too.

At the same time, Intel is believed to be close to announcing its new CEO following a six-month search for a successor to Brian Krzanich. The indications, based on the gnomic utterances of chairman Andy Bryant, that the company has looked outside the company for its new CEO. Bryant has reportedly told Intel employees that company may appoint a "non-traditional" candidate to the role.

The company will report its fourth quarter and full-year results for 2018 on Thursday 24 January.