SK Hynix CEO says Indiana will be key memory production base by 2030

SK Hynix, the South Korean memory maker that’s emerged as one of the biggest winners in the AI boom, is bolstering its U.S. presence, with a new factory in Indiana that CEO Kwak Noh-Jung says will make the state a “key HBM production base in America” by 2030.

Speaking at the groundbreaking for SK Hynix’s first U.S. facility on Thursday in the city of West Lafayette, Kwak emphasized the need for high-bandwidth memory, which faces a critical global shortage due to insatiable demand from artificial intelligence.

“We will provide our customers with a new source of made-in-U.S. HBM, while strengthening the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and contributing to national and economic security,” Kwak said.

SK Hynix is the HBM market share leader, and is in the midst of a $720 billion buildout to make more, with the vast majority of that expansion taking place in its home country, where the company is constructing the largest memory fab campus in the world. Production there will start in February.

The $4 billion Indiana factory will be for packaging, instead of front-end manufacturing, meaning it’s where memory chips will be stacked and connected together. Chips will be manufactured in South Korea and China, and some will then be sent to Indiana. The first cleanroom, where the packaging will take place, is scheduled to open in October 2028, Kwak said Thursday.

While packaging is a critical step in chipmaking, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in July called on SK Hynix and top rival Samsung to build front-end chip fabs in the U.S.

Kwak said SK Hynix is looking for the right opportunity and is “open to every every site or every country.” He also said that, “SK Hynix will continue to expand its investment and cooperation in America.”

SK Hynix, which trades on the Korea Exchange, listed shares on the Nasdaq in July, raising $26.5 billion, the most for any foreign company on U.S. markets. The stock is trading slightly below its first-day close and has been subject to volatility in the AI trade and Korean market as a whole.

Still, SK Hynix’s market cap is up about sevenfold over the past year, topping $1 trillion.

In an interview with CNBC in July, Chey Tae-won, CEO of affiliate SK Group, said SK Hynix has been studying possible sites for more than a month.

“I’m willing to do it, but the problem is that I really have to find the right place,” he said.

SK Hynix began construction in Indiana in April. Thursday’s ceremony was the formal kickoff for what Indiana Republican Governor Mike Braun said will be the “biggest development project in Indiana’s history,” and…