SK hynix is building its first U.S. HBM packaging facility in Indiana to supply Nvidia, targeting mass production by 2029.
SK hynix has broken ground on its first U.S. production facility, designed to mass-produce advanced High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). The ceremony took place on the 27th (local time) in West Lafayette, Indiana, marking the company’s inaugural manufacturing base in the United States. Once operational, the plant will locally supply core artificial intelligence components on the scale of hundreds of thousands of units annually.
Construction of the clean room and advanced packaging facilities is scheduled for completion by October 2028, with full-scale HBM mass production slated for the second half of 2029. This initiative marks the first time a Korean company will manufacture HBM within the United States, a market previously devoid of domestic HBM production. Major American technology firms, including Nvidia, will be among the primary recipients of the domestically produced memory chips.
SK hynix Chief Executive Officer Kwak Noh-jung attended the groundbreaking and outlined the facility’s operational scope. The plant will receive hundreds of thousands of DRAM wafers annually from South Korea, where the company’s total estimated annual DRAM output stands at approximately six million wafers, with a dedicated portion allocated to HBM manufacturing. Through back-end processing, these wafers will be completed into finished HBM units. “The Indiana project is about establishing the first HBM production base in the United States,” Kwak said, adding, “It will be a key base to first supply ‘Made in USA’ HBM and a major foundation that strengthens the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and contributes to the economy and security.”
SK hynix will invest approximately $4 billion in the construction project. In support of the initiative, the U.S. government has approved up to $450 million in subsidies and $500 million in loans under the CHIPS and Science Act. These funds will help offset capital expenditures while accelerating the facility’s development timeline.
The Indiana facility will focus on advanced back-end packaging, stacking and bonding DRAM chips shipped from Korea into final HBM configurations. It will also serve as a hub for research and development targeting next-generation memory architectures. Currently, SK hynix supplies sixth-generation HBM (HBM4), which features 12 stacked DRAM layers and is integrated into Nvidia’s latest AI accelerator, the Vera Rubin. As Nvidia continues to push the boundaries of AI hardware performance, the Indiana plant will likely transition to producing generations beyond HBM4. SK hynix is already advancing development on seventh-generation HBM (HBM4E).
To accelerate next-generation innovation, SK hynix has signed a research and development memorandum of understanding with Purdue University, leveraging the institution’s engineering expertise to secure top-tier research talent. The facility is situated on land owned by Purdue in West Lafayette. Upon reaching full operational capacity, the plant is expected to host approximately 1,000 employees. Broader economic impact projections estimate the project will generate around 7,000 direct and indirect jobs, encompassing construction and operations roles alongside partnerships with roughly 100 suppliers of materials, components, and equipment.