WEST LAFAYETTE — SK hynix's decision to build a core base for cutting-edge high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in the United States has drawn an enthusiastic response from Indiana and the broader U.S. business community. Supplying the most advanced HBM, a key semiconductor for artificial intelligence, from U.S. soil starting in three years could help Washington gain the upper hand in the AI race with China while also giving a significant boost to the local economy.
At the SK hynix fab construction site inside Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana, foundation work for the clean room was in full swing on the 26th. The site, a cornfield until recently, was selected for the SK hynix fab and groundwork began in April this year. The plot spans 540,000 square meters, roughly the size of the company's M15 plant at its fourth campus in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. In football terms, the entire site is equivalent to 100 fields, while the clean room measures about four.
The clean room, made up of three zones for research and development, mass production and testing, is the core facility for making HBM within the fab. Concrete pouring began in April, and about 7% of the overall process has been completed so far, putting the clean room on track to start operating in October 2028 and to begin HBM mass production in the second half of 2029. Annual output will reach hundreds of thousands of wafers on an input basis — a substantial figure considering that SK hynix is known to process 500,000 DRAM wafers a month. Hundreds of thousands of advanced Korean-made wafers can go through back-end processing to become the latest HBM and be supplied directly to U.S. AI companies.
SK hynix expects the Indiana fab to become the first production base for the latest HBM in the United States. While U.S. rival Micron is building new HBM fabs in locations including Boise, Idaho, SK hynix argues it will be the first company to produce next-generation HBM such as HBM4E, the seventh generation, in the United States. The mainstream HBM products in the memory market are currently HBM4 and HBM3E. Micron is expanding HBM4 production at overseas fabs, including in Japan, amid a memory supply crunch. With SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won signaling in a CNBC interview on the 13th of this month that the group is willing to build an additional front-end fab in the United States, a chain running from wafers to HBM production on American soil is also conceivable.
SK hynix is especially counting on access to top semiconductor talent from Purdue University, home to a world-class engineering school. On the 27th, at the groundbreaking ceremony, SK hynix signed a memorandum of understanding with Purdue for research and development cooperation in advanced packaging. The two sides will jointly research next-generation technologies including HBM while also focusing on training and recruiting talent. Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center is unusual among university labs in housing a clean room along with lithography, etching and packaging equipment, and it plans to bring in a deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography system within a few months — a tool that even ordinary chip companies find hard to acquire. Its semiconductor research capabilities are strong enough that Microsoft has partnered with it on quantum technology. Asked how many people could be available when the SK hynix fab is completed, Zhihong Chen, director of the Birck Nanotechnology Center, said, "There are about 150 students training in the clean room for 2028."
The Indiana fab is already helping drive a virtuous cycle in the U.S. economy, as the project uses as much American-made raw material as possible in response to the Trump administration's tariff policy and wartime conditions. A significant share of the rebar going into the Indiana fab is U.S.-made. The rebar used in the site's buildings stretches about 2,635 miles (4,241 kilometers), enough to reach from New York to Los Angeles.
The employment impact is also considerable. About 300 people work at the site each day now that only building construction is under way, but that will rise tenfold to 3,000 workers next year when electrical and design work begins. To honor Indiana's special ties with Korea — the state sent about 140,000 troops during the Korean War — SK Group has decided to join an employment program for U.S. Forces Korea veterans run by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea-U.S. Alliance Foundation.
With more than $4 billion being invested in the Indiana fab, the project is also expected to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem and reinforce Korea-U.S. economic cooperation. SK hynix is in talks with more than 100 partner firms on entering the local supply chain for materials, components and equipment, and expects the construction and operation of the fab to create about 7,000 direct and indirect jobs. Kim Hyun-joong, a team leader at SK hynix who guided the site tour, said, "Local residents give us a warm welcome and are delighted when we say we work for SK hynix," adding, "I feel proud because it seems Korea's standing has risen."
Kwak Noh-jung, chief executive officer of SK hynix, said at the groundbreaking ceremony, "The United States is the center of AI innovation, where the best customers, research capabilities and ecosystem come together," and called it "a day when the United States and SK hynix begin a new future for AI together."
