The Intel plant in Rio Rancho. (Jim Thompson/Journal) ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Intel Corp.’s Rio Rancho campus is bustling with activity thanks to the chip makers’ local focus on building new, innovative technologies that support the company’s evolving global operations. The company hired another 82 people at its New Mexico plant in 2020, growing its local workforce beyond 1,800 employees, according to the company’s annual report to Sandoval County, released Monday morning. That caps a three-year turnaround at the Rio Rancho campus, where the workforce has expanded by 64% after bottoming out at about 1,100 people in 2017. The local site had been steadily shedding jobs since 2013, when it employed about 3,300 people, as major investments in new chip-making technology went to other U.S. sites and Intel plants overseas, rather than New Mexico.