South Korean manufacturer begins construction of $3.9 billion AI chip plant in US
South Korea's SK hynix is starting construction of its first production facility in the US. The company is investing $3.87 billion in an advanced packaging plant for memory for artificial intelligence systems and a research center in Indiana.
Site preparation work in West Lafayette is already underway, with the official groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for August 27. After that, major construction is expected to begin.
The facility will be located in the Purdue University Research Park. It will have an advanced packaging line for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used alongside graphics processors in servers for training and operating AI models.
Thus, it's not about the full cycle of semiconductor manufacturing from wafers, but primarily about assembly and packaging of HBM chips. This stage involves vertically stacking multiple memory dies, ensuring high data transfer speeds and is critically important for modern AI accelerators.
Mass production at the plant is planned to start in the second half of 2028. The site will also have a research line for developing next-generation memory and semiconductor integration technologies.
The project is expected to create about a thousand permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs. SK hynix will collaborate with Purdue University and other educational institutions to train engineers and technical staff.
The US Department of Commerce provided the project with up to $458 million in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. The company also has access to a loan of up to $500 million.
SK hynix is one of the world's largest HBM producers and a key supplier to Nvidia. The launch of the US facility is expected to reduce US dependence on foreign chip packaging and strengthen the local supply chain for AI equipment.
