The move comes as Intel, which employs 5,000 people in Leixlip and up to 5,000 additional construction workers at present, anticipates the completion of a €3.6bn upgrade to its Irish manufacturing site.

Last month, the company revealed that it will produce cutting edge 14 nanometre chips in Ireland, which are set to be branded as ‘Core M’ processors for use in the next generation of laptops and mobile devices.

Ireland and Israel have been competing for Intel’s long-term investment funding.

“Without this grant, Intel would have carried out this large investment in other places, such as in Ireland or the US, where the red carpet had already been rolled out for it,” said Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economic minister. “This is the biggest investment in the country’s history.”

In return for the reduced tax rate and government grant, Intel has pledged to spend €4.5bn on its Israeli plant and €430m on procuring products and services from Israeli companies.

Earlier this year, the semiconductor giant revealed that it had spent $5bn (€3.6bn) on upgrading its Irish facilities in the last three years and $12bn (€7.9bn) on its Irish facilities over its 25-year period here.

Intel secured planning permission early last year for a further manufacturing facility in Ireland which could see the creation of up to 4,000 more jobs in the Leixlip region.

However, the company’s main executives have not yet decided where a new plant is to be located.

At present, Intel’s Irish manufacturing facilities have paused production while the facilities are being upgraded.

“The Israeli side are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year,” said Eamonn Sinnott, general manager of Intel Ireland, earlier.

“And they are very busy on leading edge product technologies and they’ve got great design capabilities. But I can honestly tell you that there isn’t a state in America or a country on the planet that wouldn’t dearly love a facility like we’re building here. Our facilities are magnificent. They’re engines of creativity and capability. They’re world class.”

Mr Sinnott said that Intel executives remain upbeat about Ireland’s future within Intel’s plans.

“We’ve $12.5bn of capital in the ground and with a workforce that has demonstrated world-class capability,” he said.

“They are hugely attractive and indicative that unless we do something crazy or shoot ourselves in the foot, we will remain in pole position to continue the track record over the last 25 years.

“We’re anything but a brass plate operation. Intel is fundamentally different that way. And I think we’ve proven it, with the largest investment in the history of the state.”

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