Intel 'will not meet' predicted 2025 launch for Ohio plant

NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WCMH) -- Amid reports of a delay on construction at Intel's semiconductor plant in Ohio, the company has reaffirmed it's still fully committed to finishing "Silicon Heartland."

Intel spokesperson Eleonora Akopyan confirmed to NBC4 Thursday that the company had originally hoped to have the Ohio One fabricator plants putting out computer chips by 2025. After the Wall Street Journal reported that the multibillion-dollar site would see a delay in completion to 2026, she gave a wider estimate of three to five years from the 2022 groundbreaking.

"While we will not meet the aggressive 2025 production goal that we anticipated when we first announced the selection of Ohio in January, 2022, construction has been underway since breaking ground in late 2022 and we have not made any recent changes to our pace of construction or anticipated timelines," Akopyan said.

The Intel spokesperson added that the launch date could fluctuate based on a number of factors, but that construction workers were still moving "full steam ahead" on Ohio One. The company wants to house two separate semiconductor fabrication factories at the site. Akopyan detailed that Intel has hired 100 Ohioans training at existing semiconductor plants in Arizona and Oregon, and has between 800 to 900 workers at the construction site as of Thursday.

Despite acknowledging its semiconductor plant won't be active as early as it originally predicted, Intel's new forecast is still well within the deadline set by the millions of dollars it received from Ohio. The state finalized an onshoring agreement with the chipmaker in June 2023, awarding $600 million in grants that Intel could keep so long as Ohio One was operating with 3,000 employees by the end of 2028.

Intel's Ohio plant has been the poster child for planned economic development in New Albany and the greater Columbus area since Gov. Mike DeWine and CEO Pat Gelsinger announced the computer chip manufacturer wanted to come to Ohio. The tech giant's arrival in the state has courted some high-dollar neighbors hoping to utilize the area's expanding infrastructure for factories of their own.

With President Joe Biden in attendance and calling it "America's future," Intel broke ground on the plant in September 2022. Gelsinger personally attended the ceremony alongside Jim Evers, the general manager for Ohio One. The road to that milestone was rocky as well, as the company delayed the groundbreaking over the CHIPS and Science Act's slow progress in Congress. The bill, which ultimately passed the U.S. House, Senate and Biden's desk, was intended to provide around $52 billion in incentives for chipmakers like Intel who build plants and their products domestically.

Intel's 2023 report for investors confirmed it had received $723 million in grants from U.S. state governments for Ohio One. It also received $845 million in "advanced manufacturing investment" tax credits tied to the CHIPS and Science Act. The document did not specify how much of the federal incentive was attributed to specifically its Ohio site, given the company's fabricators in Arizona and Oregon.

While Ohio One will run two fabricators at launch, filings with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency show that Intel has a permit that allows it to build four factories while complying with emissions standards.

“Adding four factories to the permit does give us the flexibility to move faster,” Intel spokeswoman Linda Qian said in 2022. “Now, the [New Albany] site does have the capability to hold eight factories, and so we would need to go through the permit process again if we were to expand to the full eight.”

Evers, who came to Ohio from Intel's Arizona plant, previously shared the timetable for the western campus' build-up compared to his hopes for Silicon Heartland.

“It took me 28 years to build four fabs [there], we’re going to build two more [in Ohio]. I hope that I can build more than that at a much quicker pace," Evers said in 2022.