20 Years in Folsom

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Intel's Human Touch Keeps Region's Economy in the Chips

By Rich Ehisen

     It’s been 20 years since Intel opened its 214-acre research and design campus in Folsom, an event that propelled a sleepy little town best known for antique shops, funky bars and a notorious prison into a new life as a hub of modern technology and suburban yuppiedom.     
     That transformation also sent ripples across the entire Sacramento Metro Market, drawing even more high-tech companies and other industries into the area and helping to spur massive economic and infrastructure growth, from Shingle Springs to Rancho Cordova.     
     Although Santa Clara-based Intel’s unparalleled expansion at the Folsom campus has slowed since its halcyon days, its enormous financial, philanthropic and political impact on the region continues to be felt from the boardroom to the classroom.     
     Today, the world’s largest chip maker employs approximately 6,500 workers in Folsom, part of an international payroll of about 80,000 and approximately 1,000 fewer than at its peak in 2000, but still enough to be among the region’s top five private-sector employers, along with Raley’s, Sutter Health, Mercy Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente.     
     Most of those jobs are of the high-skill, high-paying variety, a definite boon to many other industries — from service and retail to the arts and healthcare — that have come to count on Intel’s presence for their prosperity.   

Multi-Billion Dollar Impact
Continued...

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