NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WCMH) – A multi-billion-dollar investment was celebrated Sunday in New Albany.
Intel is building a semiconductor chip fabrication facility that should be operating by the end of 2028. Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the facility’s groundbreaking.
The focus of Sunday’s celebration was on the opportunities Intel and the four-story factories will provide.
Some of those opportunities are in education and workforce development.
“We have this Intel Future Skills platform, which is a platform that right now already has touched over 10,000 students in Ohio and this is a platform where, you know, it’s got Future Skills and it gives students exposure to, like, design, thinking, and experimentation,” Intel Chief People Officer Christy Pambianchi said.
The plan is to reach students in kindergarten all the way through college.
“We also have been partnering with some school districts to do afterschool programs where we’re trying to bring as many students as possible to have interaction with science, science and math,” Pambianchi said.
Some of those educational advancements include Khanmigo, which is an AI tutor and teaching assistant developed by Khan Academy. The goal of this program is to provide math and science help to middle and high school students in select schools across the state.
“The donations that we made are really focusing on post-secondary, but we obviously want to have students interested in pursuing education,” Pambianchi said. “When a student is home working on their homework or something from school, they can just type into the PC or their computer, ‘How do you solve a differential equation,’ or ‘I studied this in biology today, and what’s this?’ and the Khanmigo program will help guide them and give them prompting questions.”
The fabrication plant is still in the process of getting its federal funding, with one Intel executive saying the company filed for money from the CHIPS Act.
“Just last Friday, we filed our application for the CHIPS Act, for the CHIPS Act, and that’s what’s going to be needed to really rally not just the state, which has been amazing supportive, but also rally the federal government behind an amazing project like this,” Intel Chief of Global Operations Office General Manager, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Operations Keyvan Esfariani said.
The law provides $52 billion in incentives and tax credits for semiconductor chip makers like Intel. The silicon giant already planned to spend around $20 billion in New Albany, but would get an additional funding boost from CHIPS.
Sunday’s celebration was one for the Buckeye State and those who live in it.
“We make the things in Ohio the people need to live and thrive, from the food you eat to the cars you drive, the trucks that deliver to the airplanes that fly,” Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said. “To the cloud that processes everything and now the chips that are going to power our devices.”
According to a $600 million grant agreement with the state, Intel has until Dec. 31, 2028, to complete construction of the two planned fabrication facilities. Once complete, the company expects to create 10,000 jobs with thousands more indirectly.
