By Bill Horner III, Chatham News + Record Staff
The multi-billion semiconductor chip manufacturer previously reported to be considering Chatham County’s Triangle Innovation Point megasite won’t locate there, the News + Record has learned.
No formal announcement has been made, but a source familiar with the project told the CN+R on Thursday that Chatham County was no longer being considered.
The Business North Carolina magazine first reported the possibility of a Chatham site location Dec. 22 — and as the CN+R has also since reported, the general scope of the project would have made it one of the largest industrial announcements in N.C. history.
Triangle Innovation Point is one of two Chatham megasites, the other being Siler City’s Chatham Advanced Manufacturing site. The TIP site — formerly known as the Moncure Megasite — is a 2,150-acre project in eastern Chatham, near U.S. 1 between Sanford and Raleigh.
Michael Smith, the president of Chatham’s Economic Development Corporation, told the News + Record recently that both the CAM and TIP sites “have seen record interest, activity, and visits over the past 12 months.”
“This community is fortunate to have such strong business leaders that own these two state-certified megasites in the 2,000-acre range and want to have significant companies land on each,” he said. “These two sites both continue to be in conversations with very large projects that have a chance to provide good jobs and opportunities for Chatham County and this region.”
A screen grab from a video promoting the Triangle Innovation Point.
The Raleigh News & Observer previously reported that the Chatham County site faced competition from Texas and Arizona for the microchip manufacture, which have both recently landed semiconductor manufacturers. This past fall, Intel began construction on a $20 billion chip plant in Arizona and Samsung is building a $17 billion chip plant outside of Austin.
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