Advanced Manufacturing
Intel Again Eases Construction Pace on $28B Ohio Chip Plants
Intel announced in a July 24 earnings call that it would further slow construction of semiconductor manufacturing plants in Ohio.
Intel Corp. is again putting the brakes on the speed of construction of two semiconductor fabrication plants totaling $28 billion in central Ohio.
Although no revised completion dates were announced for the project known as Ohio One, Intel's chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan said in a July 24 earnings call that "we will further slow the pace of construction in Ohio to ensure that spending is aligned with market demand."
He added that "based on the progress we’ve already made in Ohio we have the flexibility to accelerate our work as needed to meet customer needs."
In addition, Tan said the company is canceling plans for building manufacturing facilities in Poland and Germany and will consolidate a plant planned in Costa Rica with larger ones in Vietnam and Malaysia.
Intel had announced in March that it was slowing the pace of construction of the plants. At the time, Intel said the first of the fabrication plants, known as fabs, would be completed in 2030, according to the company.
The project, which is being led by general contractor Bechtel, includes 2.5 million sq ft of buildings including 600,000 sq ft of clean room production space.
Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said in a statement that he still believes Intel will proceed with the project.
"Intel has affirmed its commitment to Ohio as the new leadership of the company makes adjustments to its long-term strategy," he said.
In an annual report submitted in early 2025 to the Ohio Dept. of Development, Intel told officials that it spent $3.7 billion on the project by the end of 2024. Additionally, the company says more than 6.4 million work hours had gone into the project to date. Crews have placed more than 200,000 cu yds of concrete, installed 497,000 linear ft of underground conduit, installed 98,700 linear ft of underground pipe and installed 24,500 tons of rebar.
The report also lists some of the firms that worked on the project in 2024. In addition to Bechtel, they include Barnhart Plant Services LLC, CTL Engineering inc., Currie & Brown Inc., EMH&T Inc., Geotechnical Consultants Inc., Gilbane, Linde Engineering North America, Lithko Contracting LLC, MWH-Kokosing Joint Venture and SSOE Group, among others.
The plan to build Ohio One was announced in 2020 when DeWine noted that Ohio had won the project over 40 other states competing for it.
Describing Intel’s path forward, Ban, who was named Intel's ninth CEO in March, said "we need to build capacity smartly and carefully on a schedule that meets the needs of our customers and supports the economics of our business. This approach is fundamentally different than the path we’ve been on over the past four years."
Also on the earnings call, Intel announced it plans to lay off 15% of its global workforce, which would winnow its employee count of nearly 109,000 to 75,000 by the end of 2025.
Bechtel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
