Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday he was in touch with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger a month ago and sees no signs that Intel would pull the plug on its $20 billion project in Ohio as it cuts costs globally.
The tech giant is at risk of being booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average with its stock tanking, according to Reuters, and it's facing serious manufacturing setbacks. As part of a cost-reduction plan Gelsinger outlined during Intel's quarterly earnings in early August, it will slash 15% of its headcount by the end of the year, according to an Aug. 1 press release.
It comes as construction progresses in Licking County on massive semiconductor production plants. DeWine said while he believes Intel is here to stay, the question is how quickly they scale.
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“What’s going on with the market, Intel has to navigate and certainly is navigating,” DeWine said. “And we will watch that. We kind of watch that from afar. Our job is to make sure that we're doing everything to facilitate the roads being out there, to facilitate everything that they need.”
Ohio Chamber of Commerce senior lobbyist Rick Carfagna said in August he has faith the long-term need for the tiny computer chips will outweigh the chipmaker's woes.
“When I commute to work and I travel our freeways and when I see all of the mega loads ... There is steel going into the ground,” Carfagna said in an interview. “Things are underway. I have no qualms whatsoever that these fabs will be, are being constructed and will be constructed on time.”
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In February, a spokesperson for Intel said it wouldn't meet its “aggressive” project finish date to be online by 2025. She declined to pinpoint a date then but said construction could continue through 2027—which would be five years after the groundbreaking—based on prior project timelines.
Intel was awarded money from the federal government through the CHIPS and Science Act for various projects nationwide, including those in Arizona and Ohio.
The state has also already doled out $600 million in onshoring grants to the tech giant for its Ohio plants. A spokesperson for Gov. Mike DeWine said in February that delays in projects this size and scale were not abnormal.
Intel is under contract with the state's Department of Development to deliver on its job creation and investment commitments to the state by 2028.
