6 minute read
Business: Tech Boomtown
TECH BOOMTOWN
Central Ohio continues its journey to become the Silicon Heartland.
DOUG ULMAN
Pelotonia | CEO | Moved here in 2014 from Austin, Texas
The late January 2022 reveal that semiconductor manufacturer Intel Corp. would invest an initial $20 billion in a microchip fabrication complex in western Licking County marked the culmination of an eight-month marathon among 40 states hoping to land the facility and its promises of economic prosperity.
But in truth, the Columbus Region had already established itself as Ohio’s premier tech hub in 2014, when Amazon Web Services staked out land in Hilliard and Dublin and, a year later, in New Albany, as a sites for data farms.
“AWS put us on the map, especially with the Fortune 100 and 500 companies” says Matt McQuade, managing director of business development for economic development organization One Columbus. “Their choice to locate in our market and invest $1 billion sent a signal that something was happening here.”
Indeed, Google and Facebook parent company Meta soon decided to set up large-scale data center campuses within New Albany International Business Park, the eastern extension of which will serve as fertile ground for Intel’s forthcoming complex. Google has since expanded its operations to other sections of the Columbus Region. If AWS put the Columbus Region on the national map, “Intel puts us on the globe,” McQuade says. “The computer chip is the most coveted technology out there.”
Ohio and the Columbus Region’s strong network of universities and community colleges played a leading role in Intel’s decision to locate here, as it has in other industries, like life sciences. Geographically, the Intel site provides access to heavy and reliable power, water and isolation from the nation’s major natural disaster risks.
Intel expects to begin with two microchip fabricating facilities set for operation in 2025, when it puts the first of 3,000 engineers, technicians and support staff to work. Intel expects to build at least two more chip production factories on the site as global microprocessor demand grows.
Image Credit: Battelle, courtesy of Battelle
Other manufacturers in recent years have also recognized that underlying industrial and technological base. For instance, Hyperion Motors Inc. has reestablished its fuel cell research and development operations in the Region within the former Dispatch Printing Co. production facility in southwest Columbus as it gears up production of fuel cell membranes. Those membranes are used to build electricity storage packets for vehicles, including its own XP-1 sports car prototype.
While the company has its 2011 roots and much of its initial funding in Ohio and Columbus, it had relocated to California for several years before coming back. “California’s not ideal for manufacturing without a lot of government support,” says Angelo Kafantaris, the company’s co-founder and CEO. In addition to a state and local government welcoming to manufacturers, proximity of Hyperion suppliers and Ohio State University’s Center for Transportation Research helped Kafantaris and his team decide to invest $300 million in the north Columbus facility, which lays out well for the production of its membranes. “When you put it together, no other state offered these factors,” he says.
Lou Von Thaer, the CEO of Battelle, the world’s largest independent research and development organization, says the surge of homegrown technology companies and transplant operations not only taps the base of educated workers, but has encouraged many of those attending college in the Region to stay in this market after graduation rather than seeking their dream jobs in East or West Coast tech meccas. In the past, “we didn’t have the talent to scale research” into companies, Von Thaer says. Tech as a business sector in the Region “has just taken off.”
Battelle, founded in Columbus more than 90 years ago, in 2021 spun off its biotech contract research division, now called AmplifyBio, to advance cell and gene therapy research. It also has designs on the bio-remediation sector as a source for potential spinoffs, such as its Boston-based Allonia joint venture with other tech investors that launched in 2020. “We’re starting to see spinoffs from here every two years,” Von Thaer says. “We’re trying to solve big problems in the world.”
Columbus has long had a solid base of software talent and innovation, due in large part to the strength of financial giants such as Nationwide Insurance, multi-regional financial services company Huntington Bancshares and the back-office operations of top-tier national lender Chase Bank, which acquired the former Bank One operation in 2004. That energy has expanded into enterprise software in the medical field, such as CoverMyMeds, headquartered just south of downtown Columbus, which creates prescription coverage authorization systems for pharmacies.
“We have a long technology story,” McQuade says, noting the backroom corporate IT departments that attracted third-party vendors and whose employees might start a small business based on their own idea for an application. “Industries are getting disrupted from Columbus all the time,” McQuade says.
Some of that disruption comes from the venture capital funding and business support provided through Rev1 Ventures and other VC funds rising in Columbus. That has served as a financial pillar for the Columbus Region’s emergence as a tech hub. “We’ve made great strides in [creating] density of high-growth firms that can scale, especially in the areas of enterprise software and life sciences,” says Kristy Campbell, COO of the nonprofit tech organization that supports small and emerging companies through provision of low-cost business services and development-stage tech businesses.
She expects the growing base of venture capitalists willing to take the risk of mid-stage startups to continue propelling innovation that is often created by those leaving large and mid-sized companies with a mindset to develop an idea into a business.
“There is more capital than ever before … there’s been more capital invested and a number of new funds.”
Intel will continue to grab the Region’s attention as its broad base of suppliers follow the tech giant to the area. Ohio already has a fraction of those—about 140—with operations here. “With Intel, we’ll see a ripple effect,” says Dave Brewster, technology director for the nonprofit JobsOhio economic development organization. “The New Albany fabrication facilities will cause Intel to bring with them their massive supply chain, prompting even more growth.”
McQuade agrees that, while Intel has become the crown jewel of Central Ohio as a tech center, the Columbus Region still has much more to offer those businesses—and entrepreneurs with a kernel of an idea—wishing to tap the Region’s cutting-edge technology resources and infrastructure. One Columbus, JobsOhio and the local business and civic sectors will stay on the hunt. “We’re still looking,” McQuade says, “for other opportunities.”
DANIEL AYARS
NBBJ | Principal | Moved here in 2015 from Shanghai, China
