A high-profile cast of officials gathered Thursday morning for a ceremony to break ground on SK hynix’s planned $4 billion semiconductor chip facility in West Lafayette.
Among the attendees were Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, U.S. Sen. Todd Young, Purdue President Mitch Daniels, SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung and West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter.
“In the 167 years at Purdue University, there has not been a bigger day than today,” Daniels said in his speech.
SK hynix, the almost $900 billion company behind the facility, is a South Korean chip giant specializing in the manufacture of memory chips that are in high demand due to the ongoing artificial intelligence boom.
The West Lafayette plant will focus on advanced chip packaging, a process involving stacking a number of smaller computer chips together to create one superchip.
“When you chose West Lafayette, you chose more than a location. You chose a community of innovators and learners where big ideas can start and reach the world,” Easter, who spoke first, said. “You chose a partner that understands that lasting partnerships are built not simply around shared interests, but shared values.”
The facility is set to be just north of Purdue’s campus by Kalberer and Yeager Roads, and the university is expected to be closely intertwined with the project.
“We have a leading industrial affair with a leading university… and the synergy to come out of that is enormous,” said the Korean ambassador to the US, Kang Kyung-wha.
Young also mentioned professional opportunities for Purdue students in his speech.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (left), SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung (center) and Purdue Interim President Mitch Daniels (right) stand at the podium for the SK hynix chip facility groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday.
Photo provided by Purdue University | Charles Jischke
“Now students will have a direct pathway from Purdue classrooms and laboratories into one of the most advanced semiconductor facilities in the world. The project will expand opportunities for internships, research partnerships, apprenticeships and high-skilled careers,” Young said.
The road to this point has not been completely smooth sailing for SK hynix. The company and the Purdue Research Foundation — which was heavily involved in bringing SK hynix to West Lafayette — faced backlash from local residents after it emerged that the facility would go on land previously zoned as residential, near several neighborhoods.
Despite the opposition, the West Lafayette City Council in May 2025 voted 6-3 to rezone the plot allowing SK hynix to move forward with the project.
While there are still lawsuits ongoing regarding the rezoning and location of the chip facility, SK hynix has moved forward with initial site construction.
“This October, we plan to begin building key facilities,” Noh-Jung said in his speech. “Our goal is to have the clean room ready by October 2028, and we plan to begin volume production of next generation (high-bandwidth memory) in the second half of 2029. By 2030, Indiana is expected to become a key HBM production base in America.”
High-bandwidth memory is the type of memory chips SK hynix will assemble in West Lafayette. The project is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the state — something Braun touted in his speech.
“Indiana is where new opportunities of the AI era are being created with immediate economic impact and benefits for Hoosiers. Over 7,000 direct and indirect jobs are coming to this state on account of it,” Braun said.
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