Intel campus to be called One Ohio

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NEW ALBANY — While the public may still refer to it as the Silicon Heartland or simply Intel, the tech company has a name for the semiconductor production plants it’s building next door in Licking County.

Say hello to Ohio One.

“The name is a nod to the state’s long and storied history in manufacturing and its track record of producing firsts, from the Wright brothers, who grew up in Ohio and first envisioned their historic planes here, to John Glenn, the first man ever in orbit, and Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon,” said Intel Ohio General Manager Jim Evers in a blog on the company’s website. “Ohio One brings a new epicenter of leading-edge technology innovation to Ohio, the Midwest, and America.”

The name comes a year after Intel announced it would be coming to central Ohio.

Evers reflected on the progress made in the past year. The New Albany campus represents a $20 billion investment by Silicon Valley chip maker Intel, the largest-ever investment in the state of Ohio by a private-sector company.

Evers said the $50 million Intel grant program, Ohio Semiconductor Education and Research Program, “will allow institutions across Ohio to implement new courses and curricula designed to help students from all backgrounds build career skills in STEM fields. This way, skilled workers from Ohio have the opportunity to learn, study, and stay in Ohio.” Evers said the Intel Ohio team has volunteered more than 400 hours in 2022 and participated in STEAM events with more than 3,000 Ohio children.

STEAM and STEM are acronyms for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics.

Building at the New Albany is currently underway, employing 7,000 construction workers (90% of whom are from Ohio), with 160,000 hours of work to date, and 1.4 billion tons of rock and a million cubic yards of dirt moved.

When production begins in 2025, the 100% renewable energy complex will employ 3,000 people at an average salary of $135,000; and using more than 100 Ohio suppliers.

President Joe Biden, who attended the Intel groundbreaking last September, called the campus the “field of dreams in Ohio, where America, it’s time to bury the rust belt. … The industrial Midwest is back, and that’s what you’ll see in this field of dreams. … There is nothing beyond our capacity if we work together as the United States of America.”

“We’ve put our chips on the table to help the U.S. regain its manufacturing heart,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said at the groundbreaking. “We’re the company that’s going to put silicon into the heartland. Regardless of political affiliation, we reached across the aisle and got something really important done.”

News outlets reported Friday that Intel’s annual earnings fell more than 60% and revenue fell more than 20% in 2022, its worst performance since 2001. Gelsinger said Intel should recover in the second half of the year.

Whatever one wants to call Ohio One, it will have a big impact on central Ohio. In preparation, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced, “Planned transportation improvements in the area will be completed in the coming years to accommodate the additional traffic expected from future development, including Intel. Projects will be constructed by both state and local governments, with varying impacts to traffic. Please note that all work is weather dependent.”

ODOT said City of New Albany crews started doing utility work this week.

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