Intel's Ohio Fab Advances as Customers Hold Back

Intel crews installed the first major structural truss at the company’s chip fabrication plant in New Albany, Ohio. The project remains delayed, and Intel still needs customers to make the investment pay off. The milestone marks a new phase of construction at a factory first announced in 2022. Intel now aims to finish it in 2030.

A factory waiting for customers

Intel Foundry head Naga Chandrasekaran called the truss installation “another significant step toward expanded U.S. leading-edge semiconductor capacity” in a statement posted on the company’s website Wednesday. The factory is part of Intel’s effort to make chips for outside customers, a build-out former CEO Pat Gelsinger began.

Intel initially expected the Ohio factory to start delivering chips in 2025. The company later pushed back its timeline, and it now plans to complete the first fab in 2030. Intel plans to complete a second Ohio fab in 2031 at the same site, just northeast of Columbus.

Intel still needs outside business to support the investment. Reports in September said SK Hynix, the world’s leading maker of high-bandwidth memory, could partner with Intel to lease foundry space in Ohio for memory-chip production. Neither company confirmed plans.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan took the helm in 2025 and shifted Intel’s turnaround strategy toward waiting for customer demand before advancing ambitious fab plans. Under that approach, Intel will move ahead with construction only when customers commit to production capacity. The article does not identify a confirmed Ohio customer.

Competition for production space

Record demand for artificial intelligence has driven a surge in demand for advanced chips. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. can’t make chips quickly enough, and competition for space on its factory lines is “extremely fierce,” according to Mizuho Securities analyst Jordan Klein. He said that pressure applies even to Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple and Broadcom.

TechInsights analyst Dan Hutcheson said Intel could give customers another source for chip production. “People want a second source to be able to twist TSMC’s arm and keep them honest on pricing,” Hutcheson said. “All the big ones have been testing there.” His comments describe the commercial value customers may see in an alternative supplier: leverage in talks over production and pricing.

Intel’s Arizona operations show the gap between making chips and attracting outside customers. By late 2025, Intel had begun high-volume production of its most advanced 18A chips at its Arizona fab, but the company used those chips for its own processors. Intel had yet to secure a major external customer for Arizona-made 18A chips. Chandrasekaran said operations at Intel’s next Arizona fab are expected to begin by the end of 2028.

Delays and customer caution

Intel once dominated chip manufacturing, but major delays with its 7- and 10-nanometer nodes helped drive the stock’s worst year ever in 2024. Customers haven’t been eager to commit again since those delays, the article reported. Intel’s Ohio construction milestone arrives amid increased demand and continuing uncertainty over whether outside manufacturers will place orders.

The company has described the Ohio project as an expansion of U.S. chip capacity. Its schedule now depends on construction plans and customer demand, while the possible SK Hynix arrangement remains unconfirmed. Crews have started the next construction phase; Intel hasn’t announced a paying customer for the Ohio fab.