Intel Ohio One (Silicon Heartland)

Cornfields don’t usually make national news. This one did. On about a thousand acres in Licking County, just east of Columbus, Intel is building Ohio One, a pair of leading-edge semiconductor fabs that the company has pitched as the seed of a new American chipmaking region it calls the Silicon Heartland. The investment has grown from $20 billion at the 2022 announcement to roughly $28 billion, and Bechtel is running the construction.

Project Scope

The first phase covers two fabrication plants designed for advanced-node logic chips, the kind that go into AI accelerators and data center processors. A project this size is really a small city: water treatment to feed ultra-pure process loops, dedicated power at industrial scale, chemical handling, and cleanrooms held to particle counts a hospital would envy. Bechtel’s manufacturing and technology unit has been staffing up across the trades for years to feed it. State support came with strings, including $600 million in Ohio grants tied to finishing the fabs by the end of 2028.

Why It Matters

Ohio One is the test case for whether the U.S. can stand up advanced chip manufacturing away from the established clusters. It hasn’t been smooth. Soft chip demand and the slow rollout of federal CHIPS Act money have pushed the schedule right, with first-fab completion now tracking toward 2030 rather than the original 2025. That slip is the story as much as the scale. It shows how exposed even a flagship industrial build is to market timing and federal funding. The same forces are reshaping fab schedules at TSMC’s Arizona campus and Samsung’s Taylor, Texas fab. Intel says it remains committed. The concrete already poured backs that up, even if the finish line keeps moving.

Project Team & Details