![Intel is expected to announce a new computer-chip factory in New Albany later this month. [Alexander Tolstykh / Shutterstock]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6f64f77/2147483647/strip/true/crop/980x551+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fimages%2Fnews%2Fnpr%2F2022%2F01%2FIntel-shutterstock_616324691-Alexander-Tolstykh_0.jpg)
Updated: 4:09 p.m., Friday, Jan. 14, 2022
Several sources tell the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau that Intel will build a $1 billion chip plant near New Albany, with an official announcement expected on Jan. 21.
Sources say the plant will go on a nearly 3,200 acre plot in Jersey Township recently annexed into New Albany.
It’s expected to be the largest development project in Ohio since Honda first came to the state in the early 1980s, and could be the biggest in Ohio history.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) isn’t confirming the deal, but notes that he and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) have urged passage of bipartisan legislation on reshoring jobs back from overseas, investing in manufacturing and cracking down on unfair trade practices.
“One of the biggest problems we face coming out of this pandemic is our supply chain was so disrupted, partly because the economy was so disrupted," Brown said in an interview. "But it was also so disrupted because of bad trade policy and bad tax policy lobbied by some of the largest corporations in America to move jobs offshore."
Bringing semiconductor chip manufacturing jobs to the U.S., he said, would be important to economic growth overall.
“We used to make a huge number of percentage of the chips made in the world, and now we're down, I believe, below 10%," Brown said. "So this is mostly an investment by our country, by our government, by our taxpayers into production of a central component of almost everything that’s manufactured.”
New Albany already is the home of data centers for Amazon, Google and Facebook.
The development has been the source of speculation for a week. Cleveland.com was the first to report many of the details.
On Thursday, Jersey Township trustee Ben Pieper confirmed the project to WMMH. Although he did not name the company, Pieper told the state that the 10-year development project would be backed by federal money.
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