COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio's U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno has joined President Donald Trump in asking for tech giant Intel's CEO to resign due to his reported ties to the Chinese government. Moreno has also asked for a fraud investigation into Intel's continued delays on the state's long-awaited semiconductor manufacturing plant.
Ohio's multi-billion-dollar semiconductor manufacturing plant has faced delay after delay after delay. We’ve been reporting for years on Intel’s massive semiconductor manufacturing facility — one that was supposed to be operational by now — and its financial hardships.
"It was an unrealistic expectation that they would be producing chips in the summer of 2025," Dorsey Hager with the Columbus/Central Ohio Building Trades Council said Thursday.
That’s thousands of construction jobs stalled, ones that Hager said Intel promised when they broke ground at the central Ohio construction site in 2022.
"They talked about ramping up to close to 8,000 construction workers at the peak," Dorsey said. "We have close to 1,200 people out there right now."
That’s also hundreds of millions of Ohio taxpayer dollars that state Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) says are being unused by Intel.
"We're never getting the jobs we were promised, we're never getting the economic development we were promised," DeMora said. "All that's happened is we spent a lot of state money on infrastructure, drove up property rates for all the people that live there, and now we've got a boondoggle."
After years of the company’s stock plummeting, plus repeated layoffs, the company moved its expected completion date from 2025 to the 2030s.
RELATED: With Intel's latest layoffs, will the Ohio plant ever be built?
Still, Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel said he believes Intel will stay true to its original promise of the multi-billion-dollar investment.
"Nothing's easy, especially in a changing industry like the one they're in, but they've already made a lot of investment and they're still working on it," Tressel said Thursday.
"What does it say to the Ohiaons who are waiting for this — taxpayer dollars have gone to something that does not exist yet?" I asked Tressel.
"I think that's fair and frustrating for sure... We have contractual things that have to be met, I don't think those are for a couple more years, but I understand the frustration," he responded. "Big things are hard; sometimes the progress doesn't happen like you'd like it to."
But another issue is causing concern among other Republicans.
Both Senators Jon Husted and Moreno have raised red flags about the new Intel CEO, Lip-Bu Tan. This year, Tan invested hundreds of millions in Chinese companies that have ties to their government, according to a report by Reuters.
President Donald Trump and Moreno have asked for Tan to resign, and Moreno said that the project needs to be completed, “and a fraud investigation should be initiated.”
It’s pretty obvious that @intel has failed to meet the commitments it made to the people of Ohio. Now we find out its new CEO is deeply conflicted with ties to the CCP. The CEO must immediately resign, the project completed, and a fraud investigation should be initiated by Ohio.
— Bernie Moreno (@berniemoreno) August 7, 2025
Husted, who has been the face of Intel in Ohio since he helped bring it to the state when he was lieutenant governor, took a softer approach.
I just spoke with Intel. Ohioans and the American people deserve the truth. I shared that I expect answers to the questions Sen. Cotton has asked in his letter, and they promised me they would respond promptly.
— Senator Jon Husted (@SenJonHusted) August 7, 2025
The facts have not changed: We need an American company to make… pic.twitter.com/jorSGJYC6S
"Obviously, if someone's a part of the CCP, it's a problem in my mind, but I think you have to be fair until facts come out," Tressel said.
Gov. Mike DeWine, to reporters in Dayton, echoed his second-in-command's thoughts.
"We are always very careful who the state deals with. Anybody who is associated with the Communist Party in China — that's a problem. We don't trust them, we don't like them, they're not good," DeWine said. "I think we have to wait, though, in this case to see what the facts are."
DeWine referenced how "we" have not heard from Intel about this matter, he said.
"I'm sure that Intel does not, would not want to be associated with someone, and we wouldn't want them associated with someone who would be close to the Communist Party in China, but we don't know that for a fact at this point, so I'm going to reserve judgment on that," he said.
We reached out to Intel, but it didn't respond directly to us. The company released the following statement to the public later in the day:
"Intel, the Board of Directors, and Lip-Bu Tan are deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests and are making significant investments aligned with the President's America First agenda. Intel has been manufacturing in America for 56 years. We are continuing to invest billions of dollars in domestic semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, including our new fab in Arizona that will run the most advanced manufacturing process technology in the country, and are the only company investing in leading logic process node development in the U.S. We look forward to our continued engagement with the Administration."
However, its spokesperson has told us for years that their commitment to Ohio remains strong. Hager is keeping with that optimism, but DeMora doesn’t believe it's happening.
"So really, you think Intel is dead?" I asked the lawmaker.
"Intel is dead," he said. "We're never going to see Intel."
DeWine said the state won’t be able to claw back money from the state's investment in the Intel project until at least 2029.
"On January 1, 2029 is the time when we look back and we see 'did they produce the jobs when they said they were going to do or not,' but up until then, the contract does not provide any remedy for the state," the governor said Thursday. "I remain confident that Intel is going to be making chips in Ohio."
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