When moving massive metal structures from the Ohio river to its Ohio One Campus semiconductor plant 140 miles to the north, Intel took every minute detail into account.
Local school bus timetables were found and worked around. Teams of linemen in white crane trucks lined up to move traffic lights out of the way of the cargo, which measured up to three-quarters the length of a football field.
In 37 deliveries over the past 11 months, Intel had planned everything to a T, the final superload landing last month in Licking county at the first greenfield site the company has opened for 40 years. Since the $28bn project was announced in September 2022, construction crews have logged more than 6.4m work hours on the site and seas of concrete have been poured.
But while Intel has succeeded in the world of logistics, as a company, it’s hanging on by a thread.
Intel shares fell by 60% last year, with the company besieged by competition from Nvidia and problems emerging around its advanced 18A artificial intelligence chips. In November, it lost its spot on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after vowing in August to cut 15,000 jobs or 15% of its global workforce.
Lawsuits and accusations of complacency at what was at one time a world leader in chip manufacturing have shaken the company to its foundations. Rumors abound that the company may be broken up and sold to its rivals.
Now, that instability is being keenly felt here in Ohio.
Construction on the first of its two fabrication plants, meant to herald a new manufacturing age for the so-called Rust belt region, was supposed to finish later this year, but last year, that was pushed back to 2026-27. Then on 28 February, the dates were put back again, this time to 2030-31.
While that may be bad news for Intel investors and stockholders, it’s equally troubling for residents and community leaders in Licking county, who are set to find themselves dealing with construction works for another five years.
“Number one, Intel generally has been a good neighbor, so we’re not in any way anti-Intel,” says the Licking county commissioner Tim Bubb.
“[But] a lot of promises were made that were very bold. These delays … that’s the frustration for local officials. Promises were made to try to jumpstart the process and yet at the same time Intel is struggling with the technology of the new generation of chips and trying to get in the game. Their competitors are not standing still.”
Bubb says that some locals are concerned because what could happen at the plant next “is a complete unknown”.
Intel executives say the delays are due to “broader market demand”.
In November, Intel received $1.5bn in Chips Act funding for the project, a move that was seen as cementing the future of the company in Ohio, despite the delays.
But its competitors’ advancements in the industry have shifted the ground under Intel.
On 3 March, the Trump administration announced a $100bn investment in Arizona-based semiconductor manufacturing plants for the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), despite it facing similar delay issues. In his 4 March speech to Congress, Trump called the Chips Act funding that, among other projects, brought Intel to Ohio a “horrible, horrible thing”.
The enormous site, about a thousand acres, or an area larger than New York City’s Central Park, is today still a hive of activity. Street sweepers clear mud from freshly laid asphalt and the hum of generators and heavy machinery fill the early spring air. Traffic on the single-lane rural roads around what has been labelled Ohio’s largest-ever project is heavy.
Tellingly, however, “For sale’” signs in front of homes and on farmland dot the landscape around the site.
“None of us are happy about them taking away our country living,” says Robert V who asked not to be fully identified and whose home, built almost 40 years ago less than a hundred feet from the site, has today a large “for sale” sign in its front yard.
“We built our home from bare land and have it exactly how we want it. We just dumped $250,000 in add-ons and remodeling. No, we are not happy and would love for it to go back to how it was.”
Intel also appears to be losing the race to meet a critical construction deadline.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that the state of Ohio offered the company $300m in grants “to help with the construction of each factory”, in return for finishing the building work by the end of 2028.
But with its most recent announcement stating construction won’t be finished until 2030 at the earliest, that funding may be in jeopardy.
An Intel spokesperson said: “2029 is still several years away and as Naga [Chandrasekaran, the head of Intel Foundry’s global manufacturing operations] states in his message, Intel is “maintaining the flexibility to accelerate work and the start of operations if customer demand warrants.”
For Donny Barnard, the mayor of Johnstown, a town of 5,000 people two miles from the site, the repeated delays have been a good thing.
“I’m not sure what it’s like for [Intel] but I look at this rollback as a godsend. You only get one chance to develop your town and do it right. For us this is our opportunity,” he says, adding that Intel took the time to tell city leaders of the latest delay in advance of its public statement on 28 February.
“I do believe there will be a microchip plant there. Whose name is on it I don’t know. That’s not something I can control. I believe it would be hard to walk away from what they’ve done already.”
Others, however, say the delays have created major uncertainty in what was a rural, largely farming area that in recent years has been gearing up for a major economic transition. Bubb says that Licking county officials were told repeatedly by state officials that offshoot and secondary businesses would relocate to be close to Intel.
“We were preparing for companies to come,” he says. “But here’s the deal: some companies have done some looking but none have pulled the trigger.”
