SK Hynix Secures US Funding For A $3.9B AI Chip Packaging Facility In Indiana
SK hynix is on track to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the US CHIPS and Science Act to help pay for a semiconductor packaging plant in Indiana. In total, SK hynix plans to invest $3.87 billion on the production base that will churn out AI memory products on US soil, and contribute to a "more resilient supply chain of the global semiconductor industry."
As things stand, SK hynix inked a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms with the US Department of Commerce to receive up to $450 million in direct funding, along with access to loans of up to $500 million as part of the CHIPS and Science Act. All that money ($950 million) in separate from a $700 million incentive agreement with the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
"We deeply appreciate the US Department of Commerce’s support and are excited to collaborate in seeing this transformational project fully realized," said SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung. "We are moving forward with the construction of the Indiana production base, working with the State of Indiana, Purdue University and our US business partners to ultimately supply leading-edge AI memory products from West Lafayette."
The CEO went on to say that the facility will be a new hub for AI technology, and create skilled jobs in the area—SK hynix anticipates the site leading to more than 1,000 jobs overall in the region..
Announced in April of this year, the site will be home to an advanced semiconductor production line for the mass production of high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. These chips will find their way into future GPU products for tasks like AI training.
The Indiana packaging site itself will consist of a 430,000 square-foot building on 90 acres. While the new loans and total cost of nearly $3.9 billion are significant, SK hynix's parent group, SK Group, plans to invest a much larger amount overall in the US. In August of last year, SK Group went on record saying it expects its operations and investments in the US to reach $52 billion by the end of the year.
