GlobalFoundries has sent us a press release saying that the new computer chip plant it is building will require nearly as much human effort as it did to build the 102-story Empire State Building.

Land-clearing at the site began at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in the US is the first step in a huge three-year construction project expected to require 5 million person-hours. True the Empire State took 7 million man-hours to build but it lacked half of the machinery which is used today, even if the manpower was controlled by robo-aliens [You watch far too much Doctor Who. ed] (Indeed. sub.ed.)

The $4.2 billion factory will require 1,000 builders by next year. More than $800 million will go into initial construction, with another $3.4 billion being spent on the highly sophisticated chipmaking equipment inside the factory.

The factory is scheduled to open in 2012 with a permanent workforce of more than 1,400, making 22-nanometer computer chips.