Intel’s semiconductor production plants under construction in central Ohio are partly reliant on federal money, but high-profile Republicans like President-elect Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson have cast doubt on the future of the Biden-era bill.
Bernie Moreno, Ohio's U.S. Senator-elect, said Wednesday he believes the CHIPS and Science Act should be modified, not gutted outright.
“From my perspective, we have to make certain that we understand what commitments we've made to Intel. We have to honor commitments that the United States government has made,” Moreno said.
At his first post-election press conference, he said that modification could look something like shifting from grant-based awards to tax-based incentives. He blasted the delayed disbursement of CHIPS money and said securing the project’s future is a high priority as he takes office, but he said decision-making also rests with Trump and “what he wants to do.”
Just before Election Day, Gov. Mike DeWine contacted the White House about Intel’s CHIPS funding status, which has been hanging in the balance for months.
“This has been something that has been lingering for quite some time,” DeWine said.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, construction work will likely flatline through 2025.
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.
The state already doled out $600 million in onshoring grants to the tech giant. Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for DeWine, said in February that delays in projects this size and scale were not abnormal. Ohio would only claw back incentives, Tierney said then, if Intel pulled the plug all together.
Intel is under contract with the state to deliver on its job creation and investment commitments to the state by 2028.
