AMD plans joint venture chip plant by 2004

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (Bloomberg) — Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp.’s main rival in the computer microprocessor market, said it plans to find a partner and then build a new factory costing as much as $4 billion by 2004. AMD has begun planning a facility to make chips on larger wafers about the size of a dinner plate, President Hector Ruiz said. The technique allows more than twice as many processors to be built on each wafer, cutting production costs.