‘We won:’ Inside the chase for a $3.87B SK hynix chip facility in West Lafayette

It took two years for Purdue, WL to land the South Korean chip maker and what Indiana says is the biggest investment in state history. A look at jobs, incentives and water in a new ‘silicon heartland'

Touted as the largest economic development project in Indiana’s history, South Korean semiconductor giant SK hynix confirmed plans Wednesday to build a $3.87 billion chip packaging and research facility in West Lafayette.

Surrounded by Purdue officials who promised research and talent support and state officials who presented a deep collection of more than a half-billion dollars in incentives, SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung said the company believed the project in West Lafayette would “lay the foundation for a new Silicon Heartland, a semiconductor ecosystem centered in the Midwest Triangle.”

SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung, left, and Choi Woojin, the company’s head of packaging and testing, on Wednesday show a chip they say will ‘change the world’ of AI. (Photo: Dave Bangert

The plant is expected to open by 2028 in the Purdue Research Park in the northern edge of the city and create more than 1,000 jobs to meet what company officials said was “explosive growth and an insatiable demand” for high-bandwidth memory used to feed the artificial intelligence market.

For context, the $3.87 billion chip facility investment is going into a city that has an assessed valuation of roughly $1.2 billion.

“We at SK hynix see the new facility here to be the cornerstone of our strategy to strengthen our current status as the world's number one AI memory provider,” Choi Woojin, the company’s head of packaging and testing, said during a full-house announcement in Purdue Memorial Union’s North Ballroom that included Gov. Eric Holcomb and White House officials.

“Trust me, this chip is changing the world,” Choi said. “And this town will help to lead that change.”