Chatham County Pulls Out of $400 Million VinFast Deal as Vietnamese EV Plant Sits Unbuilt

Chatham County commissioners voted on Monday, July 27, to terminate the county's $400 million economic development agreement with VinFast, the Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer that was supposed to build a factory in Moncure, North Carolina, according to the Carolina Journal.

The vote is the latest collapse in a deal that then-Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat now running for U.S. Senate against Republican Michael Whatley, announced with fanfare in March 2022. Cooper called it proof North Carolina was "quickly becoming the center of our country's emerging, clean energy economy."

What the county said

Chatham County Manager Bryan Thompson said in a statement to the Carolina Journal that VinFast "failed to meet the performance obligations and project deadlines outlined in the county's economic development agreement," and that termination was warranted as a result.

Thompson said the county remains focused on "protecting the interests of Chatham County residents" and working with state partners on the site going forward.

C. Michael Smith, president of the Chatham Economic Development Corporation, struck a more optimistic tone, telling the Carolina Journal the project brought "unprecedented national and international attention" and accelerated infrastructure investment. He called the 1,800-acre Triangle Innovation Point site rare and said the county is "optimistic about its long-term potential" if it becomes available for other industries.

The bigger legal fight

The county's termination follows a May lawsuit filed by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, on behalf of the state Department of Commerce. Jackson said the state is exercising its contractual right to reclaim the property to protect taxpayer investment, according to the Carolina Journal.

Jackson told reporters in May that VinFast "agreed to build a factory and create jobs for North Carolinians" and "didn't do either," as reported by Breitbart.

How big the promise was, and how far it fell

The original 2022 pitch, according to a company slide deck, called VinFast's project the "largest economic development project in North Carolina history," with 7,500 full-time jobs and a $2 billion first-phase investment that later grew to a $4 billion plant, according to The Center Square's reporting carried by The Black Chronicle.

Total state and local incentives topped $1.2 billion, including a Job Development and Investment Grant worth up to $316.1 million in state reimbursements over 30 years, plus the $400 million Chatham County package terminated this week.

Job targets have since been cut from 7,500 to 1,400. Original production plans called for a July 2024 start; the company now isn't expected to produce vehicles at the site until 2028 at the earliest, per The Center Square's reporting.

The JDIG grant actually required state money to be paid only "following performance verification each year" that the company hit its job and investment targets, according to the Commerce Department's own rules. Payments were never made upfront. VinFast never collected the state grant money because it never met the benchmarks. The $400 million county package and the $450 million in state site-prep and infrastructure spending are the pieces where public money was already on the line regardless of performance.

A company bleeding money globally

VinFast has not posted an annual profit since its founding in 2017. According to the company's own financial reports cited by The Center Square, VinFast posted net losses of $2.11 billion in fiscal 2022, $2.39 billion in fiscal 2023, $3.18 billion in fiscal 2024, and $3.9 billion in fiscal 2025, a cumulative $9.47 billion in losses across the years spanning the North Carolina deal.

The company scaled back its plant footprint in December 2023, cutting planned square footage from 995,500 to 782,255, and slowed the project further in April 2024, citing a broader EV market slowdown despite federal EV tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The human and physical cost of clearing the site

Building the Triangle Innovation Point site required eminent domain proceedings that led to the demolition of Merry Oaks Baptist Church, built in 1888, along with five businesses and 27 homes, according to The Center Square's reporting. That demolition took place in June 2025, more than a year after VinFast had already begun signaling delays.

Where this ranks among North Carolina's economic development bets

The Center Square's reporting frames the VinFast episode as potentially the state's costliest economic development miscalculation, ahead of an $846 million taxpayer subsidy to Apple for its Research Triangle Park project and a $650 million Charlotte subsidy tied to Bank of America Stadium renovations. That's a characterization from that outlet, not an official state ranking. No state agency has publicly certified VinFast as the worst deal on record.

Breitbart's coverage ties the VinFast collapse to a broader pattern, noting Cooper's offshore wind push in the Outer Banks, which Duke Energy scrapped earlier this year after military leaders flagged concerns in 2023 that turbines could interfere with pilot training. That's a fair connection to draw regarding Cooper's clean-energy record, though it's a separate project with a separate set of facts.

What happens next

The county has directed its solicitor to formally notify VinFast Manufacturing USA, LLC of the termination. The state's May lawsuit, seeking to reclaim the property under its contractual rights, remains pending. Whether VinFast contests that suit, and whether the site gets marketed to a different manufacturer, are the open questions now facing Chatham County and the state Commerce Department.