"Out of the chute, we know there's a significant opportunity here, and as the deal dynamics continue to evolve, there's potential for us to maximize those investments that have been made in the site and take that to full capacity," she said.

But a figure for capacity "is continuing to be defined," she said.

Micron announced plans for the Lehi plant in March 1995, saying the $1.3 billion plant would employ about 3,500 people. But a downturn in the chip market followed. It had only 500 workers in mid-2000 involved in testing, not fabrication, and much of the 2.3 million square feet on 2,100 acres was dormant.

"This is just such a positive step for Micron and Lehi," Sullivan said Monday. "We're excited about realizing the potential of the Lehi facility and providing opportunities for employees and the community."

Micron continues to look for workers with backgrounds from high school education through doctoral degrees. The company is encouraging people to use www.micron.com for employment opportunities.

Intel has about 350 workers in Riverton, with most involved in payroll, the on-call assistance center and general employee services. Jason Bagley, Intel's government affairs manager for Utah, Arizona and Texas, said Utah's operations will not change.

"We will continue with our current mission and kinds of activities we're involved in," Bagley said. "I really don't see anything changing right now as a result of the announcement."

Steve Appleton, chairman, president and CEO of Boise-based Micron, told The Associated Press Monday that the joint venture with Intel would have happened without Apple's demand for NAND memory chips, since the growth of the flash memory market is outstripping demand for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips that are widely used in personal computers.

"The technology is penetrating markets that are both new to us and to Intel, and we believed the two companies together can be a formidable player in this space," said Appleton. "The NAND market is about a third the size of the DRAM market, but it is growing at 100 to 120 percent per year, while DRAM is growing at 45 to 50 percent per year."

The Micron-Intel venture follows Monday's announcement by the world's largest memory chip maker, Seoul-based Samsung Electronics Co., that it would invest $615.4 million to build a new chip production facility in South Korea to meet rising demand for both NAND and DRAM chips.

The venture tightens ties between the companies after Intel has invested almost $1 billion in Micron, according to Appleton.