For the past few years, prospective college students within Licking County have been offered the dream of a promising job at Intel: A career for which they could go to school close to home and walk into a high-paying job here. For some, it seemed like the perfect plan.
But challenges faced by Intel – including corporate shake-ups, advancing AI technology, and the national economy – have pushed the start date for production at the $28 billion computer-chip manufacturing campus in western Licking County from 2025 to 2030 or 2031.
And the company could face another financial challenge signaled by President Donald Trump during his address to Congress on Tuesday, March 4, when he told House Speaker Mike Johnson that, “You should get rid of the CHIPS Act, and whatever’s left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt. Or any other reason you want to.”
The CHIPS and Science Act – approved in 2022, the same year Intel announced that it would build factories in Licking County – authorized $280 billion to boost domestic research and production of computer chips. Intel has received about $2.2 billion of the almost $8 billion it was to receive. About $1.5 billion was slated for the New Albany project.
When Intel announced plans for its Licking County complex in January that year, Intel soon gave $17.7 million to some two-year colleges, including Central Ohio Technological College (COTC), to boost their marketing and creation of programs for what Intel calls its “talent pipeline.” The $17.7 million was the first installment of a proposed $50 million from Intel to build education partnerships between the company and local colleges. The $50 million is half of what Intel said it would invest in education.
But the talent pipeline is backing up – with students graduating from new programs and facing no job opportunities currently at Intel’s Licking County campus.
“I was really the most gung-ho about it,” said Maddix Curliss, a 22-year-old Newark native and graduate of COTC’s electrical engineering program. “My teachers were really pushing that it was a big deal.”
Curliss first spoke to The Reporting Project about the Intel educational program in 2023 while he was enrolled in COTC’s electrical engineering program and interning with Lincoln Electrics in Columbus. “As far as I can see, Intel is going to be amazing for our community,” Curliss told The Reporting Project at the time. “It’s going to give so many people jobs that weren’t here before.”
But that was when everyone thought Intel was going to have its Licking County factories operational in 2025.
In the years since, Curliss graduated, took a full-time position at Lincoln Electrics and has served as an adjunct professor at COTC.
“They [other students] heard about it, and they’re taking out loans,” Curliss said. “They’re making career decisions based on what Intel is doing.”
But Intel is not the only industry planting roots in Licking County and central Ohio, and some of them can use people with the education Curliss received.
“You’ve got to love Licking County right now. They’re just in a damn good location,” said John Berry, president of COTC since 2019. “Keep your eye on some of these other developing opportunities, because I think you’re going to find that central Ohio is going to continue to be a hub for this kind of development.”
Berry said that students who are learning a craft because of an Intel-funded education are still finding jobs with other companies choosing to operate in or around Licking County. Companies such as Boeing, Illuminate, Microsoft and, most recently, Anduril Industries – a defense contractor that plans to bring around 4,000 jobs to northern Pickaway County, just south of Columbus.
“We have had graduates that are finishing with that certificate,” Berry said. “They’re finding gainful employment and all of these other advanced manufacturing opportunities.”
For students who are still set on a post-graduation opportunity at Intel, Berry said that some who are willing to move are finding work at Intel plants elsewhere. Eleonora Akopyan, an Intel communications manager, said the company has offered internship opportunities at its campuses in New Mexico, Oregon and Arizona.
For some graduates who chose to stay in Ohio, Intel is in their back pocket for now. People such as Curliss look for other employment.
“We put them (Intel) sort of on the back burner, simply because of the timeframe, but they haven’t left the stove,” Berry said.
Someone from Intel and Berry meet monthly to stay connected and keep students interested. While Intel has fallen out of the spotlight for now, COTC still provides an education to prepare students for a career at Intel’s Ohio campus in five or six years.
“I’m curious myself to see how students are going to react,” Curliss said about Intel’s latest announcement about delaying production here. “What’s plan B for the students that are already in a semiconductor degree at school, such as COTC?”
Curliss said he doubts that students will lose excitement – though he worries there may be an “overload” of graduates going for those jobs when they’re available.
Andrew Theophilus writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.