Obama tours US technology hotbeds

President Barack Obama has been paying a visit to some of the biggest names in the technology industry.

Obama visited the Oregon headquarters of Intel, speaking of the need for education and the importance of keeping science and engineering jobs in the US.

The president touched on the history of Intel, noting founder Andy Grove's commitment to doing business in the US, and praised the company for keeping three quarters of its manufacturing operations within the country.

Obama also stressed the importance of steering young people into science and engineering in keeping jobs within the country.

"If we want to make sure Intel doesn't have to look overseas for skilled, trained workers, we've got to invest in our people, in our schools, in our colleges, in our children," he said.

"Basically, if we want to win the future, America has to out-build, out-innovate, out-educate and out-hustle the rest of the world."

Intel used the visit to announce that it will build a $5bn (£3bn) fabrication plant in Arizona to produce 14nm processors. The new plant will employ around 4,000 people.

Obama had travelled to Silicon Valley the day before for a dinner with industry chief executives, including Larry Ellison of Oracle, Steve Jobs of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Carol Bartz of Yahoo and Dick Costolo of Twitter.

The closed-door meeting reportedly considered plans for investment in technology research and development as well as funding for growing businesses.

Development of network infrastructure and the technology sector has been a key element of the Obama administration's economic plans. The 2009 economic stimulus package included roughly $7.2bn (£4.4bn) for IT investments.