SK hynix Inc, the world’s leading producer of High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips, announced that it will invest an estimated $3.87 billion in West Lafayette, Indiana to build an advanced packaging fabrication and R&D facility for AI products. The project, the first of its kind in the United States, is expected to drive innovation in the nation’s AI supply chain, while bringing more than a thousand new jobs to the region.
The company held an investment agreement ceremony with officials from Indiana State, Purdue University, and the U.S. government at Purdue University in West Lafayette on the 3rd and officially announced the plan.
At the event, officials from each party including Governor of Indiana Eric Holcomb, Senator Todd Young, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Arati Prabhakar, Assistant Secretary of Commerce Arun Venkataraman, Secretary of Commerce State of Indiana David Rosenberg, Purdue University President Mung Chiang, Chairman of Purdue Research Foundation Mitch Daniels, Mayor of city of West Lafayette Erin Easter, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States Hyundong Cho, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Chicago Junghan Kim, SK vice chairman Jeong Joon Yu, SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung and SK hynix Head of Package & Test Choi Woojin, participated.
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Leveraging its dominant position in the HBM market, SK hynix’s new facility will be home to an advanced semiconductor production line that will mass-produce next-generation HBM, the highest-performing Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips, which are the critical components of graphic processing units that train AI systems such as ChatGPT.
The company plans to begin mass production in the second half of 2028, while the new facility will also develop future generations of chips and house an advanced packaging R&D line. The site was selected due to Indiana’s resilient manufacturing infrastructure and R&D ecosystem, expert intellectuals in the semiconductor field and the talent pipeline at Purdue University, and the strong support provided by the state and local government.
Innovation in memory chips continues to drive lower-power operations and performance enhancements in computing. As tech shrinkage and other hardware improvements have hit limits, SK hynix’s new chiplet packaging technology has emerged as a promising way to continue enhancing density and performance. As this heterogeneous integration technology becomes more and more important to the future of the semiconductor industry, the company’s new initiative in Indiana will help establish the region as a Silicon Heartland: a new semiconductor cluster centered in the Midwest Triangle that will become a magnet for next-generation computing in the AI era.
“Indiana is a global leader in innovating and producing the products that will power our future economy, and today’s news is proof positive to that fact,” said Governor Eric Holcomb. “I’m so proud to officially welcome SK hynix to Indiana, and we’re confident this new partnership will enhance the Lafayette-West Lafayette region, Purdue University and the state of Indiana for the long term. This new semiconductor innovation and packaging plant not only reaffirms the state’s role in the hard tech sector, but is also another tremendous step forward in advancing U.S. innovation and national security, putting Hoosiers at the forefront of national and global advancements.”
U.S. Senator Todd Young, a key advocate for the project, said, “SK hynix will soon be a household name in Indiana. This incredible investment demonstrates their confidence in Hoosier workers, and I’m excited to welcome them to our state.” Adding, “The CHIPS and Science Act opened a door that Indiana has been able to sprint through, and companies like SK hynix are helping to build our high-tech future.”
SOURCE: PRNewswire