William Gallagher
Intel is reportedly planning to invest at least $20 billion to create a new processor facility near Columbus, Ohio, continuing chip companies' moves to reduce dependency on other countries.
As Intel plans its own new chips, and wants to make Apple Silicon ones for Apple too, the company been working to expand its capacity. A plan to invest in China was reportedly blocked by the White House, but now Intel is set to create a new plant in Ohio.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an unspecified source familiar with the plans said that the plant would create 3,000 new jobs.
The White House has commented that the plan helps strengthen US efforts to secure semiconductor supplies, and also that it shows how businesses need to avoid overdependence on particular sources.
"The COVID-19 pandemic shined a spotlight on the fragility in the global semiconductor supply chain," a White House spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.
The news follows rival chip manufacturer TSMC's work on a $12 billion processor plant in Phoenix, Arizona, in June 2021.
It's not known when Intel expects to break ground on the new facility.
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85 Comments
This is good. The Biblical pandemic flood has its downfall and also acts like a reboot. 10 years from now there will be plenty of very cool electronic toys with chips built-in.
This is great news for that state of Ohio. There are a number of excellent universities within a fairly small radius of Columbus, including but not limited to OSU, CWRU, IU, U-M, and CMU that have the kind of talent that Intel can tap into quite readily. At the end of the day, 3,000 jobs isn’t huge but I hope it all goes as planned and that this spawns additional investment in the region.
FYI: this is happening in part because $52 billion in federal support for the chip industry was passed by Congress and signed into law. Intel will be getting a grant from the U.S. government as part of the funding.
Now, if Intel could just get the litho machines, to produce chips, from ASML Holdings on time…For what I know there is a back log of years…