How Intel’s $28 billion pledge left an Ohio town in limbo
New Albany, Ohio, was supposed to be the site of an advanced semiconductor factory for Intel, but progress is slow.
The cornfield where Tiffany Hollis played tag as a girl was heralded four years ago as the site that would turn the Rust Belt into the Silicon Heartland, once Intel constructed its most advanced semiconductor factory there.
Now, the biggest economic-development project in Ohio history is on uncertain ground as the chip maker struggles to keep pace with rivals. Some residents question whether the project will be completed, or whether Intel will own it when it is.
“We have a gaping hole. What’s it going to be?" said Tiffany Hollis, City Council president of neighboring Johnstown. Most days, hundreds of trucks grind past Johnstown’s once-quiet square and its historic opera house.
Hollis likens the prolonged construction to living in a house while redoing a kitchen and bath with no clear end in sight. “It’s uncomfortable, everyone is irritated and there’s no good plan."
Tiffany Hollis, City Council president in Johnstown, Ohio, says revenue at her diner is down and construction traffic to and from the Intel site is damaging roads.
Intel said the New Albany project is an important part of its plan to expand leading-edge manufacturing on U.S. soil. “Based on the progress we have made in Ohio, we continue to have flexibility to adjust timelines based on customer demand," a spokesperson said.
In 2022, Intel pledged it would spend $20 billion, then $28 billion, to build two semiconductor factories in New Albany, an affluent community and growing data-center hub outside Columbus. Intel promised 7,000 construction jobs and 3,000 employees after a 2025 opening, and said the investment could reach $100 billion.
Last year, Intel replaced its chief executive, said it would cut as much as 30% of its workforce and delayed the Ohio project a second time. The first factory won’t open until 2030, at the earliest.
In July, the new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, said Intel would further slow the pace of construction in Ohio to ensure spending aligns with market demand. Last month, President Trump told Tan to resign because of alleged ties to China, a demand Trump later backed away from after the two met. The administration then took a 10% stake in the company.
Nvidia said last week that it would invest $5 billion in Intel and jointly develop data centers and personal-computing products. The investment doesn’t appear to directly affect the Ohio project.
Intel’s project sits in New Albany, Ohio, a data-center hub.
Today, about 1,000 construction workers are on-site. Some Intel employees, including its community liaison, recently left the company, further worrying locals.
Ohio provided $2 billion in financial incentives for the project and built roads and 16 miles of storm pipes, among other infrastructure. Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno has called for a potential fraud investigation into Intel, saying he fears the 1,000-acre site could become a “white elephant."
Intel declined to comment on Moreno’s statement. The company previously has said it was grateful for the confidence that Trump and his administration have placed in the company.
Silicon dreams
The area outside Columbus, with wide open land, access to power, water and other infrastructure, has drawn other big corporate names, including a $900 million Amgen biomanufacturing plant and data centers for Amazon.com, Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google. But no investment is bigger than Intel’s.
Intel and Ohio announced the project more than three years ago with grand ambitions: It would spark a renaissance in domestic chip manufacturing and bolster America’s artificial-intelligence efforts and national security.
Locally, it has spawned pride and anxiety, including whispers about who is profiting while others bear the burden of development. It has also generated questions about whether the area can sustain so much growth—and about the shifting timeline.
One-lane country roads now lead to New Albany’s industrial complex, which is under constant construction to add roads and buildings. Some of the structures lack windows or corporate logos.
New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding said he believes Intel will finish the factory, because it has already spent billions of dollars for work such as pouring 60-foot-deep concrete inertia pads needed for chip manufacturing. State incentives included $691 million in road and other infrastructure improvements.
Sloan Spalding, New Albany’s mayor, sys he expects Intel to complete the chips project.
“This project is too important to fail," he said, “not just for New Albany and the state of Ohio, but for the nation."
Growing pains
New Albany, developed by a company co-founded by retail executive Les Wexner, features Georgian architecture and boasts a median household income of $200,000. Its population is just 11,000, but some 26,000 people work at its business park, which has garnered $47 billion in private investment. The city requires white paddock-style fencing in town, even around Intel.
Philip Derrow, a retired business owner and New Albany resident who writes a column for the Columbus Dispatch, said he believes once the plant is producing chips people will forget its growing pains. But he acknowledged some are dealing with more direct impact.
“If you have one of those country houses that’s now staring at the back end of a data center, that’s going to be a different view than I have."
The Intel project sits in New Albany, which stands to gain property- and income-tax revenue. Meanwhile in Johnstown, which borders the site, officials say they bear the pain of heavy construction traffic but won’t reap the benefits of tax revenue.
Truck traffic in Johnstown is damaging roads and turning the city into “a pass-through town" instead of a destination, said Hollis, the City Council president. Revenue at her diner on Main Street is down 25%, and several businesses that had expected a boost from Intel have closed.
Surging property values
With land under increasing demand by developers, property values in Johnstown have skyrocketed, and some residents can’t afford the resulting higher property taxes, Hollis said. Some locals sold homes to developers early on, before they knew Intel was coming, missing out on higher subsequent valuations. Other homeowners are still waiting for offers, dealing with the construction in the meantime.
At Nick McCullough’s nursery just outside New Albany, pumpkin spice wafts over when fall candles go into production each June at a nearby bath-products manufacturer, and he worries about emissions and water use. He installed an air monitor at his business, one of about 30 that locals are planning around the Intel site.
“All we’re asking is that Intel and these other businesses do their due diligence to protect the people here," he said.
A T-shirt for sale in Johnstown, Ohio, which borders the Intel site.
At the Intel site, a cluster of towering cranes stood idle, rising out of what was once Jim Heimerl’s cornfield.
Heimerl sold about 300 acres to a developer and was able to use the profit to buy 1,000 acres in the region. But he did so reluctantly, he said, after living and working at the farm he started in 1970.
“It’s tough to see," he said. “I put a lot of blood, sweat and equity in this place."
Ken Boggs, a retired training supervisor for American Electric Power, can see the cranes from his porch. Five years ago, he paid $500,000 for 8.5 acres to raise sheep as he eased out of full-time work. The property has since been appraised at $2 million, and he says Intel’s delay has cost him offers on the land.
As the afternoon sun reflected off a pond he stocks with bass, Boggs said he is now willing to accept $1.8 million. “If we can triple or quadruple our money, we’re happy to go."
Homeowner Ken Boggs says Intel’s construction delay has cost him offers on his property.
Write to Kris Maher at Kris.Maher@wsj.com
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