Central Ohio to be an A.I. hub for the country!

Mark Somerson of Columbus Business First has the latest local business news including Microsoft to build data cluster campuses in Licking County

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Let's check in out on the LegacyRetirement Group dot com phone line with Mark
Summerson, Columbus Business First Managing Editor. Good morning, Mark. You going
to Sonic Temple Music Festival this weekend? Not this year? No, I'm
very picky about the concerts I goto festivals. I'm just too old for
them. I can't stand for thatlaw. I mean, just give me
one act and I'm happy with that, because, yeah, I can't stand

(00:23):
for eight hours. Oh, i'dbe killer on my knees. Give me,
yeah, give me about two hoursand I'm good. Yes, exactly.
I know what's popular. And Ilive in Clintonville and we can kind
of hear the old cru Stadium fromour house, so we're sort of there,
sort of not yeah, there yougo. All right, we'll dive
in here. Boy. It's amazingwhat's happening in central Ohio when it comes

(00:46):
to tech firms coming here and puttingthese massive plants here, in these data
campuses. Microsoft is the latest toconfirm a plan to build some data centers
in Licking County. What's going onthere? Yeah, they have purchased an
awful lot of land in Licking County. The latest purchase was in Heat,
but they also have purchased a newAlbany and Potascala all told, they owned

(01:10):
several hundred acres of agricultural land acrossthese cities and have spent hundreds of million
dollars and they confirmed this week they'rebuilding these data centers. Data centers are
huge to help control everything that's Amazonand Microsoft and Facebook or Meta, all
of them need these data centers toprocess everything that people use online. And

(01:33):
there's a lot of agricultural acres incentral Ohio. Plus micro Intel will be
here and you know, they sortof work hand in hand with together as
these data centers are popping up.So yeah, they have acquired now another
couple hundred acres. All together,they have spent hundreds of millions, and
yeah, in Licking County, we'retalking about a lot of data centers.

(01:57):
Now. Other companies have been buildingdata centers around your two. So Columbus
has gone from a zero tech townway back when you know, when Compuserved
was here, that was kind oftechy. But yeah, now we've exploded
with everything and it's just incredible towatch. It's also incredible to watch all
these farm fields disappear in central Ohio. To build these sort of things,

(02:19):
so you can look back and say, you know, this was a good
agricultural area. Now they're growing dataand they're growing these hubs, and they're
growing Intel, and it's just amazingto watch. It's just this transformation of
Central Ohio from rural in the outerparts of the Central Ohio area to now
tech centric. So it's really cool. We'll see how much more that they

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acquire. There's still land out thereand a lot of a lot of companies
are now interested because of Intel.They want to be close by because they
sort of work, like I said, on the periphery of each other.
And it's just amazing to watch thistransformation, for sure, it is,
and it's interesting. And in fact, we'll get to another Intel story here.
Their CEO was just in town andhe had a couple of things to

(03:07):
say about what they're doing out there. We'll get to that story here in
a second. But I see thatOhio State University is getting a little more
expensive for students to attend four yearsat OSU. Yeah, the incoming freshman
classes fall will spend we'll have aphase a three percent tuition increase that comes
to about it increases if I aboutthree hundred and eighty five dollars or thirteen

(03:30):
and forty four years for residence inthe fiscal year that starts July. First,
you add in dining and housing.On the average cost, it's about
twenty eight thousand dollars to at tendper year. Let me go back a
few years and tell you when Istarted my freshman year at Ohio State and
my father taught there, so Igot half off. It was three hundred

(03:50):
dollars a quarter, so about twelvehundred dollars a year. Oh my gosh,
Now that is a long time ago. This was nineteen eighty three.
So inflation and of course all theamenities that Ohio State has put in and
coaches salaries have increased, so you'regoing to see tuition increase over the years.
Now, the freshman class that's comingin that will be locked for four

(04:12):
years, and any other progressive thingsare usually at Tuition increases are usually locked
for those students, so they knowwhat they're going to pay over there four
years. Now, I took sixyears to get out of Ohio State.
I think the incentive now is toget out early because it will cost you
a lot more. Wait, soyou were at OSU in nineteen eighty three.
I had you pegged at graduating inlike ninety seven or ninety eight.

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Oh yeah, I'm a little olderthan that. So I was there from
eighty three to nineteen eighty nine.It was a long time on campus,
but I enjoyed it. I figuredmyself out by the end and got through.
And yeah, but yeah, backthen it was affordable. I have
no student debt because I just paidcash. It's brilliant. And I'm sure
you've got a few stories to tellover those those six years on campus.

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Oh god, So what is howdoes OSU tuition stack up against other big
ten schools. They're very close andOSU is very conscious of that. They're
more affordable than of course all theprivate schools and some of the bigger there
other bigger college are not bigger,but more expensive colleges throughout Ohio, both
private and public. But yeah,they they like to say that we're right

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in there with the other big tenschools. So yeah, it's I don't
think people are going to say I'mgoing to go to another school because it's
it's cheaper, So yeah, it'sthey're right in there. Yeah, you
got to take They've got to staycompetitive, no doubt. Mark Summerson,
Columbus Business First. You can findthem at Columbus business first dot com with

(05:39):
a wealth of local business information.And I was looking forward to all week
to talking to you about when Isaw the story about Hot Chicken Takeover is
being sold again. What what arethe plans for those restaurants? Please tell
me they're going to continue to servechicken. Yes, and actually they're going
to go backwards to stay relevant.This is super interesting. We thought the

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same thing. So Hot Chicken Takeoverwas purchased in twenty excuse me, it
was purchased in twenty twenty one,and now it's been purchased again. And
crave Worthy Brands has now acquired UntamedBrands, and they say, we talked
sat down with the CEO of Craveworthyand he says, hey, we want
to make the founder, Joe Delossproud. Joe has left the business.

(06:26):
I think he still has some peripheralinput, but yeah, he was the
hard and soul of this is accordingto Greg Macjewski, the CEO of crave
Worthy, and he said they didso many things that was right, and
then the second ownership changed things,and so now they're going back to the
original saying it was too good tochange. People know how Chicken takeover and

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they have sort of lost some ofthat appeal over the past few years.
Now, he says, we're goingback to the DNA of Hot Chicken Takeover.
We are going to return several thingslike sweet teas. They stopped serving
it, and they and they alsoget stopped giving out ranch. They're going
to get rid of the self serveranch pumps, but they will hand out
as much ranch as a customer wants. And the macaties that they make is

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so good that they're going to spreadit throughout their change for other restaurants within
there because it's so good. AndI think that's exciting when you have a
new owner that says, I'm notgoing to make all these huge changes looking
forward. I'm actually making some changesto go back to the way it was.
And I think Joe Tolass would behappy with that. And I think
Hot Chicken Takeover fans from way backwhen are going to say, hey,

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I may go back to this again. If they promise they're going to go
back, Yeah, free sweet teaand free ranch. You had me there
at Free, no doubt about it. Are they still going to call it
Hot Chicken Takeover? Are they goingto change? The name? Name is
not changing. I mean it's locally, it's not going to change. They
may change it if it expands outsideof Central Ohio, but they are not

(07:54):
changing the brand name here. They'resmart enough to know that people want HCT
and they know it's going to begood. So yeah, they're keeping the
name. I think this is supercool. We'll keep an eye on it
and see how much they actually dochange going forward, but we're looking forward
to seeing them go a little bitbackward too. Got about a minute left
with Mark Summerson, Columbus Business First, Columbus Business First, dot Com and

(08:15):
Intel CEO was in town and hewas talking to some folks saying that Columbus
or Central Ohio anyway is going tobe an AI systems hub for this country.
Talk about that, Yeah. CEOPat Gelsinger was in town to talk
to CEOs about how his one Coltor excuse me, Ohio one campus in
New Albany is coming twenty eight billiondollar project. Of course, but they

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say this is going to be differentfrom the other processing plants that they have
created. They say that they wantto make AI the driving innovation for this.
So Pat Elsinger said, it changeseverything and it's going to need a
whole lot of chips. So hewants their Columbus site, Ohio on to
be the AI systems fab for thenation. They want to be able to

(08:58):
provide those chip to people who aregoing to be relying and building their systems
using AI. And I think that'sfascinating because we knew we were going to
be making chips, of course,but he really wants the focus to be
on AI and make Columbus the headquartersfor that within Intel, which is exciting
of course, and that twenty eightbillion dollars, by the way, is

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going to grow because he has alsotold us that they will continue to build
fabs if everything works out here.So you're going to see and hear a
lot about Intel and everybody's talking aboutAI and they certainly want to make that
something that's important to Central Ohio