Intel inexplicably makes jobs announcement in round room with very nice curtains

Intel’s latest press conference was its most well-appointed yet. The chipmaker’s CEO Brian Krzanich announced his company’s newest initiative in a tasteful if traditional space with lavish gold curtains and a stately desk. The room, with notably rounded corners, was nearly 3,000 miles away from the company’s headquarters and many of its manufacturing sites.

In lieu of PR a representative, Krzanich, the CEO of the “great, great” company, was introduced by a forcefully spoken if not particularly eloquent man who was seated nearby.

“Brian called a few weeks ago and said we want to do a very big announcement having to do with our country, but having to do mostly with Arizona and the jobs and the great technology that will be produced,” the man said, as camera shutters snapped wildly a few feet away.

Krzanich heralded a $7 billion investment in Fab 42, the name of the semiconductor fabrication site in Chandler, Arizona that has been sitting idle after plans for it were abandoned in 2014. Fab 42 was first announced in 2011 and Intel claims that in the future it will employ 3,000 workers toward its manufacturing efforts. Notably, Intel cut 12,000 jobs — 11 percent of its workforce — in layoffs that began last May and are projected to be complete by mid-2017.

“Intel is very proud of the fact that the majority of our manufacturing is here in the U.S.,” Krzanich said.

Thank you Brian Krzanich, CEO of @Intel. A great investment ($7 BILLION) in American INNOVATION and JOBS! #AmericaFirst🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/76lAiSSQ1l

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017

Helpfully, Krzanich quickly clarified what Intel intended to get out of the exchange with the seated man, who sat quietly, periodically casting restless glances out of the windows nearby.

“We’re consistently one of the top five exporters in the country and one of the top two resource and development centers in the United States,” Krzanich said. “We’ve been able to do that even while the regulatory and tax policies have disadvantaged us in the past, relative to the competition we have across the world.”

It was not immediately clear what role, if any, the seated man played in the jobs, which appear wholly unrelated to the setting in which the news was announced.