October 18, 2004 – National Semiconductor Corp. has celebrated the grand opening of its first manufacturing plant in China, an assembly and test facility in Suzhou Industrial Park.

National is now shipping products from its Suzhou facility to customers in China and worldwide. The half-million sq. ft. plant allows National to expand its capacity for assembling and testing semiconductors, complementing existing assembly and test plants in Malaysia and Singapore. National’s newest plant represents 400 high-tech jobs for the local economy.

National intends to invest $200 million in the facility. After a ground-breaking ceremony in November 2002, construction began in January 2003. Fifteen months later, with construction complete, the company started hiring its first operation employees. Suzhou shipped its first finished products to customers in July 2004.

The site includes three buildings on 52,000 sq m (550,000 sq. ft.) and is located about 80 km (50 miles) west of Shanghai.