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Ongoing developments at the LEAP Research and Innovation District in Boone County were among the most significant local tech stories of 2024.
Progress continued this year on LEAP, which stands for Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace, a 9,000-acre tech park in Boone County that aims to attract manufacturing, research and development and corporate campuses.
Eli Lilly and Co., which in 2022 was the first company to announce development plans at LEAP, has upped its planned investment several times since then, most recently in October when it announced an additional $4.5 billion investment to create a center for advanced manufacturing and drug development. That announcement brings Lilly’s total investment in the LEAP site to more than $13 billion.
In November, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. struck a tentative deal with the city of Lebanon for an initial $800 million investment in a data center that could eventually grow to a $4.8 billion project. In return, Lebanon would provide Meta tax breaks.
The state also continued to financially support LEAP. Most recently, state budget officials this month approved the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s request to use an additional $60 million on additional land purchases and on infrastructure for the Lilly and Meta projects at LEAP.
Here’s a look at some of the other important local tech stories of 2024:
• A number of Big Tech companies announced planned data centers around the state, prompting concerns about whether Indiana’s electrical infrastructure is up to the challenge of powering all those projects.
In addition to its planned LEAP data center, Meta also announced this year that it planned to build an $800 million data center in Jeffersonville. And Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Chicago-based developer Wylie Capital also announced their own plans to build data centers in New Carlisle, Fort Wayne, LaPorte and Merrillville, respectively, representing more than $15 billion in combined investment.
In November, Indiana electric ratepayer advocates reached a settlement with Amazon, Google and Microsoft and Indiana Michigan Power over the planned data centers. Each of the three tech companies agreed to provide $500,000 per year for five years to the Indiana Community Action Association to support low-income Hoosier utility customers.
• The U.S. Department of Commerce last week finalized an agreement with South Korean chip maker SK Hynix Inc. that will provide the company with up to $458 million in federal CHIPS Act funding to build a $3.87 billion semiconductor packaging facility at Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette.
SK Hynix had originally announced its plans in April, saying it intends to open a 430,000-square-foot building in the second half of 2028, employing more than 1,000 people by 2030.
• Indianapolis-based venture firm High Alpha, which invests in early-stage software-as-a-service companies, announced in June that it had closed on a $125 million investment fund, its fourth and largest to date, exceeding the firm’s original target of $110 million. High Alpha also made some changes to its operating strategy, cutting its staff and planning to launch fewer new companies per year than it traditionally has in the past. High Alpha’s website currently lists a staff of 22 people, down from 45 a year ago.
• Amidst an ongoing slump in venture funding activity, Indianapolis-based insurance technology company Remodel Health raised a hefty $100 million-plus in growth funding from a pair of out-of-state investment firms. For perspective, that single deal is about double the $51.3 million that all of Indiana’s tech companies raised during the third quarter of this year, according to data compiled by Indianapolis-based TechPoint, which tracks the state’s tech investments. The funding, announced this month, came from Connecticut-based OAK HC/FT and California-based Hercules Capital Inc.
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I’ll say it again; LEAP should beg – and should always have begged – the question: What could YOUR town do with a $60,000,000 handout from Uncle Eric? And why isn’t YOUR town being paved with gold like little Lebanon? “Because [water-poor] Lebanon is partway between hither and yon, strategically located on the magical new BS Corridor”? (ha haaa! Dupes! Patsies! Saps!) Now that Holcomb, the IEDC and its current & previous honchos, Mitch Daniels, etc etc have sold Hoosiers this bag of magic beans, despite the obvious answer to the questions going unasked by the IBJ, every other media outlet, Democrats, etc, Hoosiers deserve the reputation as the biggest suckers in U.S. history. It’s this simple, and most Hoosiers know that this (good ol’ boy deals) is how politics works in Indiana, yet nobody will talk about THE MAYOR’S DADDY, who “was the architect of the effort by Republicans to take back the Indiana Statehouse after years of Democrat rule.”
http://markitred.com/the-mark-it-red-team/
Sorry, should have edited: 60 million was the latest handout from the Budget Committee. What’s the total cost to Hoosier taxpayers so far to boost little Lebanon and its influential mayoral family? $600 million? $1 billion? That would be a nice year-end story, IBJ.