SK Hynix plans volume production of HBM4E chips at Indiana factory in H2 2029

SK Hynix is bringing next-generation memory production to the American Midwest. The Korean chipmaker plans to begin volume production of HBM4E chips at its Indiana facility in the second half of 2029, adding another milestone to what is shaping up to be the most consequential semiconductor buildout on US soil in decades.

The plant, located at Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, carries a price tag of roughly $3.87 billion to $4 billion. It is designed to package the ultra-fast memory stacks that power the accelerator chips inside data centers run by Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google.

What is HBM4E and why does it matter

High-bandwidth memory is the ingredient that lets AI accelerators crunch through enormous datasets without hitting a memory bottleneck. Standard DRAM is like a single-lane road; HBM is a 16-lane highway stacked vertically in a tiny footprint directly beside the compute die.

HBM4E is the next evolution of that highway. SK Hynix has already shipped samples of its 12-layer HBM4E stacks, which pack 48 GB of capacity and run at 16 Gbps per pin, with power efficiency more than 20% better than the previous generation.

The company projects HBM4E will reach mainstream adoption by 2027, with its Indiana factory then ramping volume production through 2029. The facility is also intended to eventually produce HBM5, the generation beyond that.

Mass production at the Indiana plant overall is targeted for the second half of 2028, with the HBM4E ramp following in 2029. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 27, 2026.

The CHIPS Act money and what it buys

The US government finalized up to $458 million in CHIPS Act grants and $500 million in loans by December 2024. The facility will sit on roughly 133 to 138 acres at Purdue Research Park, and SK Hynix expects it to generate around 1,000 permanent positions while supporting 7,000 total direct and indirect jobs across the region.

The Indiana plant will primarily handle advanced packaging rather than raw wafer fabrication. DRAM dies will mostly be manufactured in Korea and then shipped to West Lafayette for assembly into HBM stacks. That model is faster and cheaper to stand up than a full wafer fab, and it still satisfies enough of the CHIPS Act’s domestic content requirements to unlock the grants.

A competitive race with no finish line

SK Hynix is currently the undisputed leader in HBM, supplying the bulk of memory that goes into Nvidia’s H100 and successor chips. Samsung and Micron are both scaling their own HBM programs aggressively, with each company targeting higher-bandwidth, higher-capacity stacks on roughly similar timelines.