The company seeks to hire "permanent, highly skilled employees," Intel CEO Paul Otellini , where U.S. President Barack Obama toured a microprocessor factory. Intel currently has about 82,000 employees.

Obama is currently visiting the West Coast as part of an effort to promote innovation to maintain U.S. competitiveness. Obama , including Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, as part of the tour.

"These new employees will focus on areas that span the exploration of new materials to create even smaller transistors, to products that we believe will transform the way that health care and education are delivered, to 'future technologies' that involve augmented reality and computers that can read minds, or at least anticipate your needs," Otellini said.

Intel also announced it would invest around US$5 billion to build a chip plant in Chandler, Arizona. The plant will be dedicated to making chips for PCs, consumer electronics and mobile devices, Intel said in a statement. Construction of the plant will begin in the middle of this year and should be completed in 2013, Intel said.