160,000-Pyeong Cornfield Becomes an AI Heartland... 'Made in USA HBM' Gets Underway

[Financial News, West Lafayette = Lee Byung-chul] Until just a few months ago, this flat stretch of farmland was used to grow corn and soybeans. Now, massive concrete columns and tower cranes rise above the site. At the SK hynix high-bandwidth memory (HBM) plant construction site in West Lafayette, Indiana, which was visited on the 26th local time, several cranes were extending their arms toward a building that stands about 100 feet, or roughly 30 meters, tall. Steel rebar protruded densely from the ground, while construction materials and heavy equipment were scattered throughout the site. Overall progress is now about 7%, and building work alone is around 15% complete.
"This used to be a cornfield," said Kim Hyun-jung, head of SK hynix's construction team, underscoring how the transformation here has only just begun. Since full-scale site work started in April, about 90% of the first-floor slab has been completed, and columns to support the second floor are now being erected. Once finished, HBM production equipment will be installed on the second floor, while the first floor will house pumps, scrubbers that purify exhaust gases, and other support facilities.
The scale of the plant is overwhelming. The total site covers 133.5 acres, or about 163,000 pyeong, enough to fit roughly 100 American football fields. The cleanroom alone spans 181,475 square feet, or about 5,100 pyeong. The building will stand about 100 feet tall, roughly equivalent to a 10-story building.
The scale becomes even more striking when the construction materials are converted into distance. If the rebar used were laid end to end, it would stretch about 2,635 miles, enough to reach from New York to Los Angeles. The steel frame weighs 24,157 tons, enough to make about 220 of Chicago's iconic Cloud Gate sculptures. Once this massive structure is completed, mass production of the first-ever Made in USA HBM will begin in the United States from 2029. SK hynix plans to invest more than $4 billion in total, complete the cleanroom by October 2028, and build production capacity capable of processing hundreds of thousands of HBM wafers annually.
SK hynix is known to produce 6 million DRAM wafers a year, and this plant is expected to produce around 10% of that total based on current estimates. When cutting-edge HBM wafers made in Korea cross the Pacific Ocean and arrive in Indiana, they will undergo wafer-level packaging and testing before being supplied to U.S. AI customers. In effect, Korean HBM manufacturing technology and U.S. AI demand are being linked through a single production line.
This semiconductor plant will not be limited to mass production alone. It will also include an HBM production line, testing space, and research and development (R&D) facilities. When the construction that began on a cornfield is completed, the United States will have its first HBM production base. A new supply chain connecting Korea's HBM manufacturing competitiveness with the U.S. AI industry through local production will be created in Indiana.
[email protected] Reporter Lee Byung-chul Reporter