Report: $4B semiconductor facility planned for West Lafayette
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A South Korea-based semiconductor chip maker is planning to invest $4 billion to establish an advanced chip-packaging facility in West Lafayette, according to a report Tuesday from The Wall Street Journal.
The publication cited sources familiar with the project that said the SK Hynix facility could create between 800 and 1,000 jobs.
Additional details on the project were not provided.
Purdue University and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. previously announced a “special economic development announcement” that is set to take place April 3 on the West Lafayette campus, though it is not clear if it is related to the SK Hynix project.
In an email to Inside INdiana Business, an IEDC spokesperson said the agency was unable to confirm or comment on the Wall Street Journal report.
In February, the Financial Times reported that SK Hynix had plans for a chip-packaging facility in Indiana, though a specific location and number of new jobs was not known at that time. The company would only say that it was considering a possible location in the United States.
According to The Wall Street Journal, SK Hynix is the exclusive partner of Silicon Valley-based Nvidia to provide chips for the company’s graphic-processor units, which are used in OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Over the last two years, West Lafayette has grown to become a hub for semiconductor research and development. In July 2022, Minnesota-based SkyWater Technology detailed plans to invest $1.8 billion to build a semiconductor R&D and production facility in West Lafayette and create 750 jobs.
Purdue University has inked multiple international agreements focused on advancing R&D and workforce development in the semiconductor industry, including with manufacturers and higher education institutions in Japan, as well as the government of India and Belgium-based research and innovation center Imec.
In December, Purdue and Imec cut the ribbon on a new research and development hub at the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration on the West Lafayette campus.
Last April, the university announced it was investing $100 million in semiconductor research and learning facilities as part of its Purdue Computes initiative. Purdue’s efforts have also received praise from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.