Victory lap for Sen. Young on $450M CHIPS Act news at Purdue
Young, instrumental in the CHIPS Act, talks about $450M awarded to SK hynix plans to build in West Lafayette. Plus, plans for senior housing near Old Jeff. And the call on Cole Hocker's gold medal run
Today’s edition is sponsored by Lafayette Rotary, hosting its 7th Annual Ice Cream Crawl from 1-4 p.m. Aug. 17. Participants can visit any or all of nine local ice cream shops to get a free sample of ice cream. Passports (tickets) are $10 for individuals and $25 for families of five or fewer from the same household and are available from Eventbrite. This fundraiser will provide a pocket park with benches and a bicycle repair station along the Wabash River Greenway Trail. Follow the QR code below or click here to purchase passports. And visit www.lafayetterotary.org to learn more about our Rotary organization.
VICTORY LAP FOR SEN. YOUNG ON $450M CHIPS ACT NEWS AT PURDUE
News Tuesday that SK hynix, a South Korean company with a $3.87 billion plan to locate facilities in West Lafayette, is up for $450 million in federal CHIPS and Science Act funding afforded Sen. Todd Young a chance for a bit of a victory lap.
The U.S. Commerce Department award – which also included up to a $500 million loan for SK hynix – was the 15th from the CHIPS Act fund since the legislation Young carried got through Congress and was signed by President Joe Biden in 2022.
It was the second, and by far the largest, CHIPS Act funding in the Indiana Republican’s home state since money started rolling out from a $52.7 billion fund intended to spur American semiconductor research, development and manufacturing. (The first for Indiana came in July, when the Heartland BioWorks was designated as one of three regional tech hubs.)
“This is always a team effort,” Young said during a call Tuesday, hours after the SK hynix award was announced.
“I'm very proud of the role I've played of co-authoring the CHIPS and Science Act, but I do have to give a special bit of recognition to (Commerce) Secretary (Gina) Raimondo for her management of this program, to Purdue University and the Purdue Research Foundation and their amazing leadership, and to the local community for understanding this project and for the support they have given,” Young said.
SK hynix announced plans in April to build a 430,000-square-foot facility on 90 acres in the Purdue Research Park. The company intends to bring production of high-bandwidth memory used to feed the artificial intelligence market to West Lafayette by the second half of 2028 and eventually create an estimated 1,000 jobs.
Here are a few takeaways from the conversation with Young Tuesday.
On whether the CHIPS money a deal-breaker if it didn’t come through.
Young said that during the early negotiations that SK hynix “showed great in interest in the subsidies.” He said that Raimondo was taking a cautious approach and making companies “work for it and commit to particular project before they received any kind of awards.” Young said he appreciated that.
“At one point, I think it was this year,” Young said, “SK hynix indicated that they planned to make this investment in Hoosiers and in this project regardless. That tells me that these monies can be helpful and allowing SK hynix to realize a larger project, one bigger in scope and that would probably employ more people as a byproduct than what they would have envisioned.”
On SK hynix’s plans in West Lafayette in the larger scope of the CHIPS Act.
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