Intel to announce US$500mln India investment: report

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is likely to announce an investment of US$500 million in its Indian operations when a top company official visits the country, the Business Standard said.

The paper, quoting unnamed sources, said on Saturday the planned investment would be announced by Craig Barrett, chairman at California-based Intel, during his visit to Asia's third largest economy next week.

"About half of this investment is expected to flow into Intel's research lab and marketing division, the other half will be used for (jointly) developing a personal computer," the report said.

A spokesperson for Intel declined to comment on the report.

Intel has a development centre in Bangalore, India's silicon hub, which designs and develops software to power chips that drive computers and high-end networks for Internet-based applications.

Its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices has stolen a march by getting into an agreement with consortium SemIndia to supply technology for a proposed US$3 billion chip-making factory in India.