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 adopti...