Hanmi Global, based in Seoul, South Korea, has been selected as the construction manager for a planned $4 billion AI memory manufacturing facility being built by chipmaker SK hynix on 133 acres in West Lafayette, Ind., reflecting the importance of a global supply of AI memory needed to cope with the rapid rise of the technology.
The project is a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) packaging plant, part of AI’s semiconductor supply chain, with construction already underway and a clean room expected to be completed in October 2028. Hanmi Global, which managed pre-construction in 2024, will oversee the entire scope of project management, including design, cost, schedule, quality, safety and coordination of US and Korean partners.
The installation requires complex infrastructure (clean rooms, power, water and gas systems) closely synchronized with equipment installation, making integrated project management critical, Hamni Global said in a press release.
The project is SK hynix’s first AI memory production center in the US. It will house an HBM production line and the advanced packaging R&D testbed. SK hynix says it plans to supply next-generation HBM that has undergone on-site packaging and testing to its US customers from the second half of 2029.
HBM is a high-value, high-performance memory product that vertically connects multiple DRAM chips to increase capacity and significantly improve data processing speed. HBM has evolved over six generations.
Advanced packaging is an advanced semiconductor background process technology that overcomes the limits of fine-grain scaling to reduce chip size by integrating multiple chips into a single package or stacking them vertically to improve performance, Sk hynix says.
In addition, SK hynix has signed a memorandum of understanding with Purdue University for research and development in the field of advanced packaging. They will collaborate in various areas, including joint research and talent development for next-generation AI memory.
“With Indiana as the home of this landmark project, we expect this investment to drive new growth in the region and create an impact that extends across the United States,” Indiana Governor Mike Braun said at the opening.
Purdue University President Mitch Daniels said he hopes the project will be the “starting point for establishing Indiana as a center for the semiconductor industry and related technologies.”
In 2024, the US Department of Commerce awarded SK hynix up to $458 million in direct funding under the CHIPS Incentive Program funding opportunity for commercial manufacturing facilities. The CHIPS Program Office also provides up to $500 million in loans, part of the $75 billion in borrowing authority provided by the CHIPS Act.
