Intel Builds $20B Ohio Chip Plant Amid Global Shortage

Intel will invest $20 billion in a new computer chip facility in Ohio amid a global shortage of microprocessors used in everything from phones and cars to video games, John Seewer and Andrew Welsh-Huggins reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: A rendering shows early plans for two new leading-edge Intel processor factories in Licking County, Ohio.

After years of heavy reliance on Asia for the production of computer chips, vulnerability to shortages of the crucial components was exposed in the US and Europe as they began to emerge economically from the pandemic.

The US share of the worldwide chip manufacturing market has declined from 37% in 1990 to 12% today, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), and shortages have become a potential risk.

Two chip factories on the 1,000-acre site in Licking County, just east of Columbus, are expected to create 3,000 company jobs and 7,000 construction jobs, and to support tens of thousands of additional jobs for suppliers and partners, the company, and local and state officials announced Friday.

Chipmakers are diversifying their manufacturing sites in response to the shortages.

Samsung said in November it plans to build a $17 billion factory outside of Austin, Texas. Micron Technology, based in Boise, Idaho, said it will invest $150 billion globally over the next decade in developing its line of memory chips, with a potential U.S. manufacturing expansion if tax credits can help make up for the higher costs of American manufacturing.

Construction is expected to begin this year, with production coming online at the end of 2025. Shortages of chips have crimped the ability of US automakers to produce vehicles and last year, General Motors was unseated by Toyota as the nation’s top-selling automaker for the first time.

The US and Europe are pushing aggressively to build chip-making capacity and reduce reliance on producers that are now mostly based in Asia. Several chipmakers last year signaled an interest in expanding their American operations if the US government is able to make it easier to build chip plants.s

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