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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (NEXSTAR) – SK Hynix has announced plans to establish a new chip manufacturing facility within the Purdue Research Park.
Scheduled to commence operations in 2028, this $4 billion project is anticipated to generate 7,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly, benefiting the local economy.
Chad Pittman, who serves as the president and CEO of the Purdue Research Foundation, explains that the plant will specialize in advanced packaging for the company’s high-bandwidth memory chips.
“This facility will be crucial for leveraging AI in applications that could accelerate breakthroughs, such as discovering treatments for cancer and dementia,” Pittman remarked.
Headquartered in South Korea, SK Hynix is one of several companies reaping the benefits of the CHIPS and Science Act. Enacted in 2022, this legislation allocates billions in federal funding to bolster semiconductor production across the United States. Numerous firms nationwide have received financial support to establish similar facilities in states including Texas, Ohio, Oregon, and New York, among others.
“It’s going to be critical for applications that are able to use AI to, I think, help speed along applications, like maybe finding cures to cancer, finding cures to dementia,” he said.
SK Hynix, which is based in South Korea, is among many benefitting from the CHIPS and Science Act. Signed into law in 2022, it provides billions of dollars in federal funding to help boost semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. Several companies, across the country, have also benefitted from the funding to help support similar plants in states, like Texas, Ohio, Oregon, New York and others.
SK Hynix received up to $450 million in federal funding for its West Lafayette plant.
“We’re very excited about what that brings in the future,” said Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh.
The future includes a lot of growth in and outside of Tippecanoe County. With thousands of jobs coming to the area, thanks to SK Hynix, Murtaugh says they’re already working to accommodate.
“We know that, because of this project, there’s been significant growth in future residential, just north of this project,” he said.
“There’s two hospitals that are going to be located in this area because of the growth that we’re going to see in that area,” Murtaugh added. “In addition to the jobs that this creates, obviously very, very high-paying jobs, but also, there’s a huge parcel of ground just north, in which over 700 new residences will be constructed.”
Along with construction for hospitals and new residential areas, Murtaugh says they’ll also be focused on creating and improving surrounding roads.
“In partnership with West Lafayette, we need to construct a new road just north of the SK Hynix project,” he said, “and then we also need to upgrade a significant number of the county roads that will be servicing this facility, both from the I-65 Corridor and from the south, as well.”
“We need to upgrade some roads that were formerly just rural road sections that now need to be urban corridors,” he added. “We need to provide amenities, such as trails and sidewalks, and enhance traffic signals and intersections as well.”
While the SK Hynix project brings a big boost to a small area, leaders say it’s also benefitting the bigger picture of overall growth in the country.
“This is really big for Greater Lafayette, really big for Central Indiana, but I think it’s big for both the region of the Midwest and the United States,” Pittman said.
“Typically, these types of investments have traditionally gone to the West Coast, California, Oregon, Arizona and even Texas,” he added, “but this opens up, hey other parts of the country can be very relevant and participate in the future economy.”