Intel's Ohio One project shows healthy progress as new job listings pop up — construction seems to be well underway as contractor actively hiring for ambitious chip factory

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The Silicon Heartland is coming along nicely.

Intel Ohio Fab
(Image credit: Intel)

Back in 2022, Intel announced its Ohio One project, originally pitched as America's biggest fab complex at one point. Since then, plans have been scaled back, and the project has faced multiple delays amidst internal shakeups — but it was never abandoned. A few months ago, Intel confirmed that Ohio One is still alive and kicking after the company was probed by a U.S. Senator. Today, new job listings posted by the site's contractor hint toward the project finally picking up steam.

Bechtel's website showing job listings for Intel Ohio One project

(Image credit: Future)

Ohio One will start with two fabs, Mod 1 and Mod 2, but the space can accommodate up to eight in the future. The current timeline indicates that these factories will be up and running by at least 2030-2031, which marks a significant delay from the admittedly generous 2025 estimates set at the time of the original announcement. Mod 1 will be ready for production first, with Mod 2 likely follow in a year. By that point, Intel might've already moved past even its next-gen 14A process.

Intel's latest Panther Lake lineup of mobile CPUs is built in the U.S. At its Arizona and Oregon facilities using the company's new 18A node, a major breakthrough for domestic chip manufacturing. But 18A doesn't have big external clients beyond the Blue Team's own needs, something that it desperately wants to change with 14A. Ever since his appointment, CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been rather bearish about the node, but just a few days ago, the executive made a sharp reversal in his sentiments.

Ohio One had been long prophesied as the birthplace of 14A, but as things stand right now, that window has likely slipped since 14A is tipped to be production-ready by 2027. Its derivatives, like 14A-E, will have already become a large part of Intel's portfolio before Ohio One even opens its doors. That being said, the project was always intended as a leading-edge logic campus, so any new processes can be taped out in the future. We don't need to speculate that far ahead; let's stick with the present.

The White House released $8.9 billion worth of the remaining CHIPS Act funding to Intel in exchange for a 10% stake in the company last year. Add to that a budding Nvidia partnership worth $5 billion, and we see a revitalized Intel that finally seems competitive again (especially in its Foundry business), accelerating work on Ohio One after years of stagnation. Now, only time will tell exactly who will cut the ribbon at Mod 1 in a few years from now.

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Hassam Nasir
Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TechieTwo
    It's amazing what $8.9 BILLION of U.S. Tax payer money can accomplish.
    Reply
  • TechieTwo said:
    It's amazing what $8.9 BILLION of U.S. Tax payer money can accomplish.

    My thoughts exactly.

    Would they ever have been able to proceed with this, without the help of the US government?

    I seriously doubt it.

    Their struggles with the 13th and 14th-generation Raptor Lake processors, along with AMD's success, have put them in a bad position.

    I don't know if they'll be able to comeback
    Reply
  • Zaranthos
    Two different democrat party bills combined and then passed and signed under Biden. Trump wanted to bring back more manufacturing which I agree with but I'd prefer the taxpayers weren't paying for it. But once the government starts throwing money around we're stuck with the bill as usual.

    I'm happy Intel didn't die because competition is a good thing, but I'd rather they weren't getting bailed out by the taxpayer.
    Reply
  • gamerk316
    Zaranthos said:
    Two different democrat party bills combined and then passed and signed under Biden. Trump wanted to bring back more manufacturing which I agree with but I'd prefer the taxpayers weren't paying for it. But once the government starts throwing money around we're stuck with the bill as usual.

    I'm happy Intel didn't die because competition is a good thing, but I'd rather they weren't getting bailed out by the taxpayer.
    I note that since the US government owns a stake in Intel, should their stock recover (which lets be clear: that's far more likely than Intel failing) the US Government receives a nice tidy profit. You can think of it similar to the GM bailout, which turned a profit at the end of the day once the government sold its stake.

    Also, speaking purely from a defense perspective, Intel is a company that simply can not be allowed to fail given the lack of high-end CPU manufacturing capability in the states.
    Reply
  • gamerk316
    TechieTwo said:
    It's amazing what $8.9 BILLION of U.S. Tax payer money can accomplish.
    The US Government is historically at its most effective when it throws money at a problem. I'd argue the lack of long term investment going back to the mid-70s is a major reason why the economics of the country are so poor these days.
    Reply
  • drivinfast247
    TechieTwo said:
    It's amazing what $8.9 BILLION of U.S. Tax payer money can accomplish.
    Everything from state-of-the-art chip fabs to daycare centers.
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    A whole 8 jobs they are sure are kicking the construction into high gear /s
    Reply
  • thestryker
    gamerk316 said:
    I note that since the US government owns a stake in Intel, should their stock recover (which lets be clear: that's far more likely than Intel failing) the US Government receives a nice tidy profit.
    Intel's current stock price is over double what it was when the government got their stake.

    The problem with doing it this way is that the money wasn't strictly tied to jobs or manufacturing progress. The prior CHIPs Act requirements were eliminated and the only penalty comes in if Intel decides to split off manufacturing. So while the money invested should make back a healthy profit it doesn't guarantee anything other than that.
    TechieTwo said:
    It's amazing what $8.9 BILLION of U.S. Tax payer money can accomplish.
    A heavily delayed project which has been completely dictated by the stock market and Intel's board?

    The only positive that can really be said about this project is that it wasn't canceled when Intel canceled the rest.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    It's hard to get excited for this when it was so heavily delayed and all other fabrication expansion was canceled. If it wasn't for the CHIPs Act funding this probably would have gotten canceled as well.

    Fab 52 is around a third full and Fab 62 still doesn't have an opening timeline that I'm aware of so Intel isn't hurting for fab floor space. The biggest question really seems to be what do things look like from an EUV machine standpoint. The Ohio facility is going to open way too late to be the home of the next batch of High-NA machines. This leads me to question what the operational strategy is going to be as it's long enough out Intel isn't saying yet.
    Reply
  • blppt
    Zaranthos said:
    Trump wanted to bring back more manufacturing which I agree with but I'd prefer the taxpayers weren't paying for it.
    I mean, we just bailed out Argentina with $40B of taxpayer money, at least this was used for something on American soil that will create (hopefully) American jobs.
    Reply