SK hynix breaks ground on $4 billion Indiana packaging plant, aiming for first U.S. HBM output by late 2029

Breaking ground on a $4 billion Indiana packaging site

SK hynix held a groundbreaking ceremony on August 27, 2026, in West Lafayette, Indiana, for its first U.S. facility, an advanced packaging plant rather than a front-end wafer fab. The company is investing more than $4 billion at the site, located at Purdue University, with Indiana Governor Mike Braun, SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung and other officials attending the ceremony.

CEO's 2030 framing for "made-in-U.S." HBM

Speaking at the event, Kwak said the Indiana site would make the state a "key HBM production base in America" by 2030. He added that SK hynix "will provide our customers with a new source of made-in-U.S. HBM, while strengthening the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and contributing to national and economic security." The remarks frame the plant as a response to a global high-bandwidth memory shortage driven by artificial intelligence demand.

Packaging-only scope despite pressure to localize chipmaking

The $4 billion factory will handle the stacking and connection of memory chips, not front-end wafer production. Memory chips will continue to be manufactured in South Korea and China, with some then shipped to Indiana for packaging, and the first cleanroom is scheduled to open in October 2028. The packaging-only design comes despite U.S. pressure to localize memory-chip manufacturing, a step SK hynix and officials are positioning as a contribution to the domestic supply chain rather than full domestic chip production.

Timeline: late-2029 U.S. mass output, Korean fab as the larger bet

SK hynix has targeted first mass production of "Made in USA" next-generation HBM in Indiana for the second half of 2029. The U.S. project sits alongside a broader $720 billion expansion concentrated in South Korea, where the company is building what it describes as the largest memory fab campus in the world; production at the Korean site is set to start in February 2027, per CNBC's reporting on the buildout. SK hynix, the leading high-bandwidth memory supplier, is positioning the Indiana plant as a complement to that Korean capacity rather than a substitute for it.