Intel Ohio One: Betting on America’s New Silicon Heartland

Intel’s Role In American Chip Making

A Tense Global Context

In its competition with China, the USA has been using semiconductor and chip manufacturing as a weapon to slow down the Chinese economy and give the US time to relocate critical industries to either its mainland or close allies.

As chip manufacturing is becoming a geopolitical weapon, the situation of Taiwan is especially critical, as the island off the Chinese coast produces the large majority of all advanced chips, including the critical AI GPUs and other specialized AI hardware that are powering the most advanced data centers.

So it is critical for the USA to relocate at least some of the advanced chip manufacturing to the USA itself, away from a potential conflict in Asia. One part was done by pushing the Taiwanese giant TSMC (TSM -4.02%) to open a brand new semiconductor foundry (“fab”) in Arizona. The first one started production, and a second for the 3nm node will start production in 2027/2028, with a third fab planned for 2nm and A16 nodes later in the decade.

But the same strategy also prioritizes having American champions increase their semiconductor production capacity at home, with Intel at the center of this plan.

The company is catching up on lost time and is the first to begin the deployment of High-NA EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) Lithography, the next technological step in chip making. Intel’s new Ohio One “Silicon Heartland” construction project is progressing after suffering delays, and is being refocused on the ultra-advanced 14A (1.4nm-class) process node, which would make the American manufacturing site one of the most advanced in chip making in the world.

Intel Is Getting Back To Business

After being a leader in CPUs for decades, Intel experienced a slump, leading to a reduction in the employee count in 2024, and a general negative outlook for the company’s markets.

In large part, this airgap was due to Intel missing 2 technological shifts in chip-making: EUV (Extreme Ultra-Violet), required for the smaller, more advanced nodes, and chiplets, smaller modular chips that can be assembled to boost performance at a lower cost.

Having ignored the GPU market, which moved from gaming hardware to essential tools for first crypto mining and then AI computation, was another serious blunder that led to Nvidia (NVDA -0.88%) becoming the world’s largest computing hardware company.

However, it seems that Intel has learned from its mistake and is now moving beyond its past mistake and leading the industry once again.

One clear sign is that the company has been leading in the adoption of High-NA EUV Lithography. This technology is the step that comes after EUV, which until recently was a complete monopoly of the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML (ASML -2.15%), until recent Chinese claim of having replicated the technology at least partially.

Intel is already using High-NA EUV at its R&D site in Oregon, and will now also deploy it to its latest project, Ohio One, for commercial production.

Intel’s Ohio One

Building The Silicon Heartland

Back in 2022, Intel decided to invest as much as $20B into two brand new facilities for chip making in Ohio, dubbing the project the “Silicon Heartland”, and immediately breaking ground. This was later upgraded to a total of $28B investment in 2024, making it the largest single private-sector company investment in Ohio’s history.

The site is for now scheduled with two semiconductor fabs, but has the potential to welcome as many as eight in total in the long run.

The construction of the first two is expected to create 7,000 jobs, and then 3,000 permanent and mostly high-qualification jobs when the fabs are running, expected to add $2.8B to Ohio’s annual gross state product and approximately $405M in annual payroll. The state is also investing $90M for transportation improvements in the area surrounding Intel’s future campus.

Source: Intel

The choice of Ohio was driven by Intel’s goal of diversifying its production from the traditional Californian and Western states center of semiconductor manufacturing, as well as Ohio’s efforts to attract this investment.

“The state budget passed last summer included a provision to double the length of state tax credits from 15 to 30 years for so-called megaprojects like Intel’s with more than a billion dollars in investments .”

Jack Boyd – The Boyd Company

The effort is not just focused on manufacturing capacity, but also training the required specialists, often in short supply in the USA, with $100M going toward partnerships with educational institutions to build a pipeline of talent and bolster research programs in the region.

The whole campus covers 1,000+ acres, with 350,000 square feet of industrial facility, including 200,000 square feet of clean room floor space.

It is a massive construction project, using up to 200,000 cubic yards of concrete, 24,500 tons of rebar, and 497,000 linear feet of conduit (94 miles) for underground electrical and data pathways.

It will be entirely powered by renewable electricity, which will reduce the environmental impact, but will still use 5 million gallons of water per day.

Ohio One Timeline

The project’s timeline has evolved alongside Intel’s strategic pivot and broader market conditions. While the project was initially scheduled to start production in 2025, then delayed to 2026, the company has since moved to a “modular” build-out to ensure financial stability.

The financing of the site saw a dramatic shift in August 2025, when the U.S. government converted billions in pending CHIPS Act grants into a 10% equity stake in Intel. This historic intervention provided the vital liquidity needed to keep the “Silicon Heartland” moving despite a volatile interest rate environment and the massive capital requirements of next-generation hardware.

Today, construction is proceeding at a steadier pace to align with the release of the most advanced process nodes. The first Ohio foundry (Mod 1) is expected to enter production in 2030-2031, with the second (Mod 2) following in 2032.

“Our investments in Ohio are part of our broader U.S. manufacturing expansion. As we continue to invest across our U.S. sites, it’s important that we align the start of production of our fabs with the needs of our business and broader market demand.”

Naga Chandrasekaran – Chief global operations officer, Intel Foundry Manufacturing

Intel’s 14A Production

As Intel stabilized its core workforce at approximately 85,100 employees following its restructuring, it sharpened its focus on “14A nodes.” This next-generation semiconductor manufacturing node serves as the successor to the 18A node. These chips, using 1.4nm-class nodes, are targeted to be among the first in the industry to utilize High-NA EUV lithography for mass production.

“With the addition of High NA EUV, Intel will have the most well-rounded lithography toolbox in the industry, enabling the company to drive future process capabilities beyond Intel 18A into the second half of this decade.”

Mark Phillips – Director of Lithography, Hardware, and Solutions for Intel Foundry Logic Technology Development

14A nodes are projected to offer a 15–20% increase in performance-per-watt, or a 25–35% reduction in power consumption compared to 18A nodes. This will be a massive advantage as the main constraint for AI data centers has quickly become energy supply, more than available compute. This energy-first mindset is increasingly critical as the industry navigates the long-term energy market volatility stemming from the unfolding regional instability in the Middle East.

Intel’s Splash Into AI Hardware

The 14A nodes will be a way for Intel to get back on track in the race to procure AI hardware to hyperscalers.

If the more generalist GPUs (initially made for graphic processing) started as the hardware of choice for AI computation, the need for more energy-efficient or custom applications is now creating an explosion in AI-specific hardware, with, for example, Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), Neural Network Processors (NNPs), XPU, etc.

14A will be perfect for producing these AI-focused hardware that goes beyond what GPUs can do in terms of total compute or energy efficiency

Another factor is the emergence of AI Agents over generalized LLMs. These AI tools do not require the same computing power as larger AIs, and can be run efficiently on general-purpose processors. This should create a strong surge in demand for CPUs, the historical core market of Intel, and one where the first-of-a-kind deployment of High-NA EUV will give it an advantage.

“The market was not prepared for this kind of explosive [central processing unit] demand. So everyone is facing the heat now.”

Manoj Sukumaran – Senior principal analyst at Omdia

Will Ohio Turn Intel’s Fortunes?

It is, of course, too soon to say if the Ohio foundries will help Intel turn around the ship and reclaim its place as one of the most innovative leaders in the semiconductor industry.

However, the successful deployment & test of High-NA EUV in Oregon, and soon in Ohio, will likely be instrumental to make it happen. With a processing node smaller than light itself, this should make Intel a key provider of the next generation of AI chips.

The delays might also not be as impactful as feared, in the sense that AI data center build-up is recently hitting a series of hard limits on the volume of chip manufacturing, energy supply, and permitting issues. So it might be so that energy-efficient, high-performance 14A nodes will get churned out of Ohio foundries just in time to supply a second wave of AI data center build-out, one that is free from the constraint of the initial build-out we are currently witnessing.

Investing In Intel

Besides the Ohio plants, Intel remains a unique powerhouse in semiconductor design and manufacturing, integrating the entirety of the manufacturing process in-house. While the 2025 government equity deal introduced the U.S. Treasury as a major shareholder, it also cemented Intel’s role as the “National Champion” for domestic chip production.

Intel is still a dominant force in the PC component segment, a sector seeing a resurgence as “AI PCs” gain traction. This is reflected in the company’s stabilizing revenues at the start of 2026, marking a period of adjustment following the restructuring efforts of the previous year.

Source: Semiconductor Business Intelligence.

As international tensions remain high and shipping lanes face disruption, Intel’s focus on U.S. production provides a “resilience premium.” With Taiwan’s energy supply highly dependent on imports, Intel’s domestic facilities—fueled by a growing mix of American renewable energy—offer a stable alternative for global tech giants.

Overall, Intel represents a bet on the USA successfully reshoring its semiconductor core and the company successfully leveraging its first-mover advantage in High-NA EUV technology.