Ohio officials hopeful Intel gets plant funds targeted by Trump

NEW ALBANY, Ohio — When Intel announced its intent to develop a $28 billion semiconductor plant in rural central Ohio, elected officials from both parties lauded a project touted as the largest single private-sector investment in state history.

The project was in many ways a poster child for the CHIPS and Science Act, the 2022 bipartisan law supporting U.S.-based investments from semiconductor companies in hopes of ensuring that the United States remains competitive in chip research and manufacturing. Intel is set to receive nearly $8 billion in federal funding for the Ohio project and its other efforts.

Then Donald Trump won the presidency again. During his joint address to Congress this month, Trump attacked the chips law, telling lawmakers he wants to see it rolled back.

“Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing,” he said. “We give hundreds of billions of dollars, and it doesn’t mean a thing. They take our money, and they don’t spend it.” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, nodded in agreement behind Trump.

In many ways, the Ohio project is emblematic of the uncertainty over funds pledged but unspent by the Biden administration.

Trump has taken wide-ranging steps to overhaul the federal government, pause the work of various agencies and halt funding for a variety of initiatives, though it’s not clear what that might mean for projects like Intel’s Ohio plant and others under the $53 billion chips law. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a confirmation hearing called the law an “excellent down payment” but added that it needs to be studied “to make sure that you get the benefit of the bargain.” That at least suggests some of the funding could be at risk.

Trump’s demands could now serve as a new hurdle for the facility that has already faced delays.

The sudden reversal has elected leaders cautious about Trump’s comments, with many emphasizing the law’s bipartisan support. Democratic members of the state Senate have been more forceful, urging Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to voice support of the chips law. DeWine, a Republican, said in a local television interview that Trump’s remarks “haven’t changed my mind a bit” when it comes to his support of the law.

Progress and delay

Intel’s Ohio facility, located less than 20 miles northeast of Columbus, has the look of a large campus, with concrete pads already in place, makeshift roads and many cranes at work. Just days before Trump’s address, however, the company announced it was delaying the opening to 2030 at the earliest. When the project was announced three years ago, the plant had been slated to open this year.

The Ohio site is the only one of the four Intel projects receiving chips funding that is a fully new plant, rather than an expansion to an existing facility, which presents different challenges.

The Biden administration originally announced Intel’s grant at “up to” $8.5 billion, the largest grant through the law, a figure the Commerce Department in November refined to about $7.9 billion. Intel has received $2.2 billion of that money through Jan. 30, according to its latest quarterly report. Intel did not respond to a request for comment.

Just weeks before the Commerce Department announced funding plans, 18 regional business organizations, including 11 from Ohio, sent a letter to then-President Joe Biden pressing for funding to be released, saying they were “growing concerned that federal funds associated with these laws are not being distributed in a timely manner.”

Intel’s financial struggles have also prompted concerns. The company reported that fourth-quarter revenue was down 7 percent year-over-year, and down for a third straight quarter.

Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of economic development agency One Columbus, has been involved in the Intel talks since the beginning. McDonald said concerns about the CHIPS Act and the disbursement of funds aren’t unexpected, given the delays.

“The way that it was implemented, the way that the money ultimately was delivered, the twists and turns that it took just because of the political realities of our current era, it’s not surprising that there would be criticism of it, and in particular the way that it actually had been or tried to be implemented,” McDonald said.

Other community members say the delays give local municipalities time to catch up with ambitious plans. The city of Johnstown is about three miles from the Intel plant. Mayor Donny Barnard said Johnstown is going to feel the impact of the plant’s arrival and needs to prepare appropriate infrastructure to support the increased traffic and surge of jobs.

The project’s delays, he said, have given Johnstown “more time to prepare for our future” as the city tackles issues like zoning and development.

“It’s really helping us to get on the right footing and prepare and do the city right, versus just doing it so quickly that we make mistakes,” Barnard said. “And that was the fear at first, because we were rushing so fast when the original date was 2025 that we would make mistakes.”

Looking forward

Lawmakers whose districts or states would benefit from the funding are unlikely to line up for Trump’s requested rollback — and one of Ohio’s new senators has even been a staunch proponent of the Intel project.

Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed by DeWine to fill JD Vance’s Senate seat and served as DeWine’s lieutenant governor, reaffirmed his support for the CHIPS Act, which he described as “a major piece of bipartisan legislation,” and said he is “confident bipartisan support remains” for the law.

“For the economic and national security of America, we need to make chips in the USA — I believe this is part of an America First agenda,” Husted said. “Making chips in places like Ohio will make sure that China doesn’t win.”

Ohio’s other senator, Republican Bernie Moreno, who was elected in November, said in a statement to CQ Roll Call that some of Trump’s other economic policy efforts are perhaps better methods of encouraging semiconductor production in the United States.

“Instead of forcing taxpayers to foot the bill and burdening businesses with oppressive regulations like Joe Biden did, President Trump is correctly pointing out that tariffs and tax reform will incentivize these companies to bring manufacturing back to the United States,” Moreno said. “I fully support his common-sense approach, which is already proving incredibly successful as we’ve seen with major wins like TSMC’s recent $100 billion investment.”

Soon after the 2024 election, Moreno said he believed the law should be modified, rather than gutted, and that it’s important to “honor commitments that the United States government has made,” according to the NPR and PBS Ohio statehouse bureau.

Republicans are moving to enact key elements of Trump’s agenda through a wide-ranging budget reconciliation process — but CHIPS funding hasn’t been in GOP lawmakers’ crosshairs: A preliminary House Budget Committee document circulated in January that details trillions of dollars in potential spending cuts and revenue-raisers didn’t mention the legislation.

But other actions could slow or stop funds. For one thing, around 40 percent of the staffers at the Commerce Department office overseeing the rollout of the funding are set to be cut as part of efforts to trim the federal government, Bloomberg reported on March 5.

McDonald, the Columbus-area economic development leader, said he remains bullish about the future of the Intel plant and its federal funding. He said he believes the Trump administration recognizes the “geopolitical implications” of investments in chip production.

“Those in leadership now were some of the same people that started some of these very ideas when they started working with Intel and TSMC in Arizona during the end of the first Trump administration,” he said. “And so I believe strongly, as we do here, that we need to have this industry in the U.S. for national security reasons, national competitiveness reasons and obviously to bring manufacturing innovation back to the U.S. as well.”

Chris Berry, the founder and CEO of Columbus-area software engineering group Echelle Resources, said the central Ohio technology community has been energized by the arrival of Intel and the federal government’s investment. But even in the face of multiple roadblocks for the project, the industry is surging in the region, he said.

“Despite the potential delays and things we’re talking about — the CHIPS Act funding and Intel investment timeline — the long-term trajectory for Columbus as a Midwest tech hub remains strong,” Berry said.