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Purdue University is set to make an economic development announcement Wednesday afternoon on the West Lafayette campus, and based on those scheduled to attend, it is likely to be a major one.
No specific details have been disclosed, but Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indiana Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) are expected to join Purdue President Mung Chiang for the announcement.
The attendance of Young could indicate that the announcement involves a company in the semiconductor industry. Young was a heavily involved in authoring and supporting legislation that eventually became the CHIPS & Science Act, which is expected to bolster U.S. semiconductor capacity through billions of dollars in federal funding.
Wednesday’s event comes about a week after The Wall Street Journal reported that South Korean-based semiconductor chip maker SK Hynix is planning to invest $4 billion to establish an advanced chip-packaging facility in West Lafayette. Sources told the publication that the project could create between 800 and 1,000 jobs.
In February, the Financial Times reported that SK Hynix had plans for a chip-packaging facility in Indiana, though a specific location and number of new jobs was not known at that time. The company would only say that it was considering a possible location in the United States.
According to The Wall Street Journal, SK Hynix is the exclusive partner of Silicon Valley-based Nvidia to provide chips for the company’s graphic-processor units, which are used in OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Over the last two years, West Lafayette has grown to become a hub for semiconductor research and development. In July 2022, Minnesota-based SkyWater Technology detailed plans to invest $1.8 billion to build a semiconductor R&D and production facility in West Lafayette and create 750 jobs.
Purdue University has inked multiple international agreements focused on advancing R&D and workforce development in the semiconductor industry, including with manufacturers and higher education institutions in Japan, as well as the government of India and Belgium-based research and innovation center Imec.
In December, Purdue and Imec cut the ribbon on a new research and development hub at the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration on the West Lafayette campus.
Last April, the university announced it was investing $100 million in semiconductor research and learning facilities as part of its Purdue Computes initiative. Purdue’s efforts have also received praise from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
The announcement is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Purdue University Memorial Union North Ballroom.
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This is major!!!!! President Mung Chiang has a lot of pull and I believe is one of the keys to jump start Indiana in the semiconductor and chip manufacturing industry. This will give Indiana a competitive edge in the region for sure.
+ 1
Hopefully some of this Purdue research & development will spill
over into Purdue Indianapolis. That would help Indianapolis greatly.