SK Hynix to Begin Construction of HBM Packaging Plant in U.S. This Year... Accelerates on Lutnick's "Tariff Exemption"

by Kim HyeongMin

Published 08 Aug.2025 11:04(KST)

Updated 08 Aug.2025 13:40(KST)

Lutnick Elaborates on Trump's Remarks from the Previous Day
"Exemption Granted if U.S. Plant is Promised, Reported, and Supervised"
Semiconductor Tariff Exemption Requirements Clearly Outlined
Attention on SK Hynix's Moves as a Leading Memory Producer
Importance of the West Lafayette Plant Further Highlighted
Impact on Alliances with Nvidia and TSMC

SK Hynix plans to begin construction as early as this year on its advanced packaging plant for artificial intelligence (AI) memory in West Lafayette, Indiana. The company is accelerating efforts to secure a local production base in response to the U.S. government’s repeated announcements of semiconductor tariff exemptions, aiming to avoid tariff burdens.

SK Hynix Headquarters, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do Photo by Yonhap News

According to industry sources on August 8, President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick have both expressed the same position: only companies that build semiconductor manufacturing plants in the United States will be exempt from tariffs. Secretary Lutnick, in a Fox Business interview regarding President Trump’s remarks the previous day, explained, “If a company promises during the president’s term to build a plant in the U.S., reports it to the Department of Commerce, and allows the entire construction process to be supervised, it will be permitted to import semiconductors without tariffs until the plant is completed.” He added, “It must be verified and supervised that the plant is actually being built in the United States.”

In April last year, SK Hynix announced plans to invest $3.87 billion (approximately 5.4 trillion won) in the construction of the West Lafayette plant. The target for completion is the second half of 2028, and the site will house production lines for packaging next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and core components for AI chips. Products manufactured here will be supplied directly to meet the demand of AI servers and data centers in the U.S., shifting the current supply chain from “Korea → Taiwan → U.S.” to a “Korea and U.S. parallel” structure.

As the U.S. government has announced plans to impose tariffs on specific semiconductor items, products such as HBM, which are produced domestically and must be shipped directly to the U.S., are likely to face significant tariff pressure. The West Lafayette plant is expected to reduce this burden and serve as a stable supply base for HBM to the TSMC foundry complex being established in Arizona.

Currently, SK Hynix supplies HBM produced in Korea to TSMC in Taiwan, which then manufactures AI chips equipped with these components and delivers them to Nvidia in the U.S. However, as TSMC increases its local production by building six foundry plants in Arizona, SK Hynix may also need to supply HBM directly to the U.S. The West Lafayette plant is expected to mitigate such tariff risks and serve as a forward base for supplying HBM to TSMC’s Arizona facilities.