Report: $4B chip facility on horizon for Purdue, West Lafayette

Announcement expected next week. Wall Street Journal reports S. Korean plant could bring 1,000 jobs, put Purdue, WL in thick of semiconductor rebound in U.S. Plus, after the West Side school threat

• Thanks to Stuart & Branigin for continued support of the Based in Lafayette reporting project.

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REPORT: $4B CHIP FACILITY ON HORIZON FOR PURDUE, WEST LAFAYETTE

Greater Lafayette and Purdue officials remained tight-lipped Tuesday after the Wall Street Journal reported that SK Hynix, a South Korean chip manufacturer, planned to develop a $4 billion semiconductor packaging facility in West Lafayette.

The Wall Street Journal report was attributed to sources close to negotiations in a move that has been anticipated since news reports in January that SK Hynix had narrowed its search for billions in investments in the United States to Indiana, edging out Arizona.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, the facility could bring between 800 and 1,000 jobs to a location near Purdue, where the university has been all-in on chip research and recruiting semiconductor work along what’s called a Hard Tech Corridor along Interstate 65, between the school’s West Lafayette campus and Indianapolis.

Purdue President Mung Chiang – who has been bullish on a semiconductor future here and earlier this year said he was “very optimistic that by the end of this year, 2024, you're going to see something very exciting” on that front for Greater Lafayette – on Tuesday repeated what he’d told Based in Lafayette in February, when the Financial Times reported that SK Hynix was concentrating on an Indiana investment as it aimed at U.S. production. Specifically: “No comments.”

Chiang added on Tuesday: “But please join us next Wednesday.”