Intel has lifted the first steel truss into place at its Ohio One chip campus, a $28 billion project that has slipped at least five years behind its original schedule.
The company said the milestone marks the move from groundwork to the main structure at the site in Licking County, where Bechtel is the general contractor. Intel now points to operations in the 2030-2031 window, well past the 2025 start it once promised.
Ohio slips while Arizona moves
The Ohio plan was announced in 2022 as the centrepiece of Intel's push to build leading-edge capacity on American soil. Delays in federal incentive money, a slump in demand for chips and Intel's own financial troubles all pushed the date back.
Intel says its next Arizona fab should begin operations by the end of 2028. The company has already been running high-volume production of its most advanced 18A process at an existing Arizona facility since late 2025.
"Watching that first truss rise at Ohio One is watching years of planning become reality," said J.P. Nauseef, chief executive of the state development group JobsOhio. He described the campus as one of the most advanced chip production sites on the planet.
The customer question
Concrete is not the same as contracts. Intel's foundry business has struggled to sign the large outside customers that make a fab pay for itself, and analysts say a big anchor client matters more to the company right now than another building shell.
Investors get an update on October 29, when Intel reports third-quarter results. The company posted second-quarter revenue of $16.1 billion, up 25% from a year earlier, and guided the third quarter to between $15.8 billion and $16.8 billion. Analysts polled by FiscalAI expect $16.47 billion and earnings of $0.40 a share.
Why it matters beyond Intel
Washington has spent billions trying to pull advanced chip production back into the United States. Intel is the only American company attempting leading-edge foundry work at scale, so its timelines double as a scorecard for that policy. A fab that starts in 2031 will not help with shortages this decade.
The company has said it will keep spending carefully until it lands the customers it needs, which means the Ohio site may keep rising while the equipment inside it waits for orders.
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