When Intel built its Ohio chip factory in 2022, it boasted about building the largest chip factory on Earth. But now, the completion of this factory has been delayed again.
It is reported that Intel has postponed the construction of the project due to intensified market challenges and slow funding for chip subsidies in the United States. It is expected that the $20 billion factory will be fully completed by 2026. The factory was originally scheduled to start production in 2025.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger confidently pointed out at the beginning of the project that since Intel can help establish a Silicon Valley, it can also help establish a Silicon Center. However, this grand blueprint is being dragged down by reality.
Headwind
Last Friday, Intel released its Q4 2023 financial report and provided a disappointing outlook for the first quarter of 2024. According to Intel, revenue in the first quarter may be more than $2 billion lower than market expectations.
Analysts have seen the dual dilemma of Intel's sluggish performance in the artificial intelligence boom and sluggish personal computer business, which led to a stock price drop of over 12% after the financial report was released.
Hans Mosesmann, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, said that there is no momentum to provide growth for Intel in the transitional year of 2024, as artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere except for Intel.
The low morale in the financial report is clearly one of the key factors affecting Intel's attitude towards major investments, but on the other hand, the delay of the Ohio factory is also related to the delayed chip subsidies promised by the US government.
The White House introduced the famous Chip Act in August 2022 and legislated it, but since its signing, the US government has only allocated two small amounts. Intel has been waiting for the billions of dollars in subsidies rumored to be allocated to it to complete factory construction across the United States, but this money has only been heard.
According to the latest news, the Biden administration is expected to begin allocating funds before its State of the Union address on March 7th, but this statement has not been officially confirmed. This forced Intel, which was struggling, to temporarily suspend the "Golden Beast" project in Ohio.
Gelsinger once joked that if there is a concrete truck in Ohio that is not working for Intel in 2023, please let him know. He probably didn't expect that by 2024, more trucks would be driving out of Intel's 1000 acre construction site.