NEW ALBANY, Ohio — A groundbreaking event scheduled next month for Intel's multibillion-dollar manufacturing facility planned for central Ohio was put on hold, the tech company announced Thursday.
Intel is building a $20 billion chip plant in Licking County which will employ about 3,000 people. The company has said there will be about 7,000 construction jobs as well and thousands of additional technical jobs, plus indirect jobs in restaurants, health care, housing and entertainment.
In a statement emailed to 10TV, an Intel spokesperson said that the scope and pace of the company's expansion in Ohio "depend heavily on funding from the CHIPS Act."
Movement on the CHIPS Act in Congress has stalled as lawmakers look to work out differences between two versions of legislation recently passed in each chamber.
The Senate and House bills allot more than $52 billion for semiconductor production and research. Grants and loans from the federal government would subsidize some of the cost of building or renovating semiconductor plants.
"It is time for Congress to act so we can move forward at the speed and scale we have long envisioned for Ohio," Intel's statement read.
A spokesperson for Gov. Mike DeWine said preparations continue on the Ohio manufacturing facility and the governor agrees with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger that "Congress should swiftly pass the CHIPS Act."
Complete statement issued by Intel:
"We are excited to begin construction on a new leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing plant in Ohio and grateful for the support of Governor DeWine, the state government and all our partners in Ohio. As we said in our January announcement, the scope and pace of our expansion in Ohio will depend heavily on funding from the CHIPS Act. Unfortunately, CHIPS Act funding has moved more slowly than we expected and we still don’t know when it will get done. It is time for Congress to act so we can move forward at the speed and scale we have long envisioned for Ohio and our other projects to help restore U.S. semiconductor manufacturing leadership and build a more resilient semiconductor supply chain."
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