Biden to attend groundbreaking of Intel’s $20B Ohio plants

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Intel Corp. will break ground Sept. 9 on its planned $20 billion Ohio semiconductor facilities with President Joe Biden in attendance, the company and the the White House said Thursday.

When the company’s two factories, known as fabs, open in 2025, the facility will employ 3,000 people with an average salary of around $135,000. Building the fabs is expected to require 7,000 construction workers.

Total investment could top $100 billion over the decade with six additional fabs, Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger has said. It’s Ohio’s largest ever private economic development project.

Biden will speak on “rebuilding American manufacturing” through recently passed laws boosting the semiconductor industry and U.S. infrastructure, the White House said.

Expanding semiconductor manufacturing domestically took on new urgency during the pandemic and as most production has shifted overseas. The U.S. share of the worldwide chip manufacturing market has declined from 37% in 1990 to 12% today, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, and shortages have become a potential risk.

To win the project, Ohio offered California-based Intel roughly $2 billion in incentives, including a 30-year tax break. Intel has outlined $150 million in educational funding aimed at growing the semiconductor industry regionally and nationally.