Air Liquide will construct, own, and manage two new production units under a long-term agreement in the state of Indiana in order to supply ultra-pure gases to the first U.S. fab of SK hynix, which is a South Korean global leader when it comes to advanced memory chips. With this investment of more than $170 million, Air Liquide will contribute to the increasing demand for next-generation chips, which are key for facilitating the AI revolution.
Next-generation memory chips such as High Bandwidth Memory – HBM demand growing volumes of high-purity gases, and Air Liquide will supply SK hynix with large volumes of nitrogen, argon, oxygen, hydrogen and various other industrial gases for the new state-of-the-art next-generation chips packaging facility by SK hynix. The new units are to be operational by late 2028.
The Group will guarantee a constant supply of high quality, directly connected to the client’s manufacturing lines, by establishing its two state-of-the-art production facilities at the customer’s premises. This strategic closeness is essential to meet the rigorous, high-precision environment necessary for advanced packaging, which serves as a key enabler for HBM. This advanced process provides better computational speed and energy savings by arranging multiple layers of memory chips stacked vertically on a smaller footprint. The ultra-pure gases supplied by Air Liquide are crucial to the customers of the fab so as to offer the clean environment needed to create the most advanced technologies.
This investment solidifies the position of Air Liquide as a major supplier to the U.S. semiconductor sector and reinforces its long-standing global alliance with SK hynix, which was further solidified by its latest landmark investment in South Korea. This new infrastructure will enable the group to accommodate the demands of its customers for rapid growth while fully integrating its activities into the local ecosystem.
According to EVP and Head of Global Infrastructure at SK hynix, Choonhwan Kim, “As development begins on America’s first advanced packaging facility for HBM, we are pleased to partner with key industry leaders to build a robust semiconductor ecosystem in Indiana.”
As per the member of the Group Executive Committee in charge of operations in the Americas, Matthieu Giard, “This milestone investment underscores Air Liquide’s ability to bolster the growth of our long-standing and strategic partners and accelerate the development of AI technologies. Relying on our three-decade presence in the electronics sector in the United States, we are proud to support SK hynix’s first landmark expansion in America and contribute concretely to the rise of the most advanced semiconductor technologies.”