Intel Decides Against Mt. Pleasant For Huge Factory: Reports

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — Intel announced more details for its plan to build two new "leading-edge" computer chip factories in Ohio on Friday.

While the announcement is "monumental news for the state of Ohio," Governor Mike Dewine said in the company's news release, it is a fresh wound for Jenny Trick, Racine County Economic Development Corp's executive director, Journal Times reported.

The company says its investment in Ohio will total more than $20 billion, and that throughout its construction phase and beyond, thousands of jobs are expected to be created. The facility is meant to boost the production of advanced semiconductors to meet growing demand, Intel said in its news release.

While the new facility commitment is big news for Ohio, initial pitches from Intel put Mount Pleasant in the running for the new facility, but the bids came up short, BizTimes Milwaukee reported.

The loss of the Intel factory pitch marks a line of occasions where possible industrial developments in Mount Pleasant have failed to materialize. In November, Foxconn purchased a former General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, marking its first automotive factory holding, CNBC reported.

Prior to Intel's announcement that the company was going with Ohio for the semiconductor plant, company executives came to Mount Pleasant to meet with Trick and other representatives, Journal Times reported. Claude Lois, the Foxconn Project Director for Mount Pleasant, told the Journal Times that "We thought we were right there."

If Intel went with Wisconsin for the plant, the facility would have likely been constructed near Foxconn.

In its announcement on Friday, Intel claimed the development was the largest private sector development in Ohio history. The company also pointed to several long-lasting effects, such as the idea that the impending "mega-site" may attract a larger "ecosystem" of partners and suppliers.

"A semiconductor factory is not like other factories. Building this semiconductor mega-site is akin to building a small city," said Keyvan Esfarjani in the news release, Intel's senior vice president of manufacturing, supply chain and operations.

In comparing the seemingly lost Intel opportunity with Foxconn, Urban Milwaukee points out several differences in the companies. The two projects are "not very" similar, the outlet wrote.

Intel already has manufacturing done in the United States, and maintains the facilities, whereas Foxconn's $13 billion development idea in Wisconsin has lacked development to its original projected scale, Jeramey Jannene reported for Urban Milwaukee.