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It wasn’t long ago when both Intel and TSMC announced big plans in the US to either open new fabs or expand their existing facilities. As it turns out, it’s not easy to pull off, as both TSMC and Intel’s newest facilities have been beset with a deluge of unexpected issues, causing repeated delays. Intel is now having to once again delay the opening of its all-new Ohio “mega fab” due to bad weather, which is preventing the caravan of trucks required to deliver necessary equipment from making their journey across Ohio to Intel’s facilities.
Intel initially planned on having an army of trucks march across Ohio with those “oversized” flags this past weekend, but unexpectedly poor weather has thrown a wrench in those plans. The company has stated it expects to begin moving the equipment no later than Feb. 17. Still, that date is a moving target as it depends on several factors, with the weather being just one part of the operation. The new date will likely fall in late February or early March.
This rendering shows what the facility will eventually look like, assuming the trucks make their way there sometime in 2024.
Credit: Intel
According to Tom’s Hardware, Intel needs to move 18 oversized loads on trucks roughly 200 feet long. Their size prevents them from using the freeways as they’re too big to go under overpasses, so they must use side streets and back roads. These local roads must be closed to the public for the trip, which requires advanced planning and five day’s notice to be posted on each part of the route. The equipment was scheduled to arrive in barges at a dock east of Cincinnati, but that dock is now underwater, according to the local NBC affiliate. Once cleared up, the gigantic machines will be offloaded onto the trucks for the journey.
The movement of the equipment is expected to take nine months, so the goal of having the facility up and running by 2025 is now officially a pipe dream. How much this delay will impact the facility’s operational plans remains to be seen, but it seems the company might now be targeting 2026, when chip production can begin in earnest. The company told Tom’s that it usually takes three to five years for a brand-new fab to start production after the groundbreaking in 2022.
This new delay is the third for Intel’s Ohio fab. In 2022, the company had to delay the initial groundbreaking while waiting for the CHIPS Act to be signed into law. That bill was eventually passed by Congress and signed into law later that year, but funds have been extremely slow to arrive. That delay in funding and a sluggish PC market caused Intel to announce another delay this month for its $20 billion Ohio fab.