In a sea of terrible economic news, Intel offered some great news by announcing a $7 billion investment.
On a day when all of Washington was grappling with the collapse of the American economy, President Barack Obama desperately needed some good news. And he got it from Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who was in town to announce that his company, which makes microprocessors for personal and business computing, would spend $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico.
So grateful was the president for this bit of private-sector economic stimulus that he called Otellini at his hotel room to congratulate him. And he took advantage of the call to do a little lobbying, asking for Otellini’s support in the debate over the economic stimulus package.
It was Otellini’s first conversation with the president, and he was impressed. “He’s very quick,” Otellini said. “He’s a natural.”
Otellini supports the stimulus plan, and that’s also a plus for Obama.
Given the horrible news coming from tech giants like Cisco, this news from Intel is even more important. Many of the tech giants are sitting on piles of cash, so hopefully we’ll see more investments.
