COLUMBUS, Ohio — On July 6, state senators Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware) and Jay Hottinger (R-Newark) introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 17, which urges the United States Congress to allocate funding to the CHIPS Act.
“This funding is critical for the national security and the economy of the United States and for the future of Ohio,” said Brenner in a press release. “We have a serious shortage of computer chips needed to make everything from consumer goods to military equipment. Intel is poised to make Ohio a world-class chip manufacturing center, but we need Congress to fund the CHIPS Act in order to make this critical next step in our nation’s economic future.”
The acronym stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act. It represents $50 billion in investments and incentives to accelerate domestic semiconductor production.
Intel Corp., which has planned to build two facilities in neighboring Licking County, has said the expansion is dependent on the CHIPS Act’s passage. While Congress did pass the bill in 2021, funds have not been apportioned to it yet, Brenner’s office said.
At the beginning of the month, construction crews had begun site preparation and excavation at the property, which would be the home for two Intel processor factories, a $20 billion complex near the intersection of Mink Street and Green Chapel Road. However, a planned groundbreaking ceremony slated for July 22 has been postponed due to the CHIPS Act delay, local news outlets have reported.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was one of 14 bipartisan attorneys general who sent a letter regarding the CHIPS Act on July 1 to Democrats Nancy Pelosi (U.S. House of Representatives) and Charles Schumer (U.S. Senate), and Republicans Kevin McCarthy (House) and Mitch McConnell (Senate).
In their letter, the attorneys general stressed the need for the funding, saying 75% of semiconductor chips are produced overseas, which affects the supply of electronics and automobiles.
“Across the country, empty lots and fields have been transformed into vast parking lots for incomplete vehicles waiting on the arrival of microchips,” the AGs wrote. “At the height of the shortage last year, Ford Motor Company parked thousands of incomplete trucks at the Kentucky Speedway, and this was only a fraction of the total vehicles the company parked while waiting on their chips.”
Meanwhile, the City of New Albany has announced, “Commercial real estate developer VanTrust Real Estate, LLC has announced plans for a new development, New Albany Tech Park, located in the New Albany International Business Park. Located on 500 acres just south of the recently disclosed plans by Intel to build a new chip plant in New Albany, VanTrust is set to break ground on multiple projects before the end of 2022, with completion expected by the end of 2023. The total buildout could reach five million square feet.”
Another neighbor is going to be Pharmavite LLC, makers of Nature Made vitamins. On June 27, the company announced a 250,000-square-foot facility in New Albany, a $200 million investment creating 225 new jobs. The manufacturing facility will be at 13312 Jug Street Road NW, pending site acquisition and approvals. Production is expected to start by the end of 2024, a news release said.
New Albany, which has 11,000 residents, “is also home to one of the largest planned international business parks in the Midwest,” the release said.
