Indiana aspires to be the next great tech hub

Semiconductors, or microchips, are critical to almost every electronic product used in the modern world. In 1990, the United States produced approximately 40% of the world’s semiconductors. As manufacturing moved to Asia, U.S. production dropped to about 12%.

“During COVID, we got a wake-up call. Like [a] Sputnik moment,” explains Mark Lundstrom, an engineer who has spent much of his life working with microchips.

The global coronavirus pandemic slowed production in Asia in 2020, causing knock-on effects on global supply chains and causing shortages of everything from mobile phones to cars. Lundstrom said the U.S.’s growing reliance on foreign chipmakers has exposed a major vulnerability.

“We know that artificial intelligence will transform society in the next few years, and it will require extremely powerful chips. The most powerful cutting-edge chips.”

Today, Lundstrom serves as acting dean of the School of Engineering at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, a leader in cutting-edge semiconductor development with new importance in the emerging field of artificial intelligence.

“If we fall behind in artificial intelligence, the consequences for our country’s defense and our economic future will be enormous,” Lundstrom told VOA.

Visitors can learn about the future of microchip technology during a lively event at a lab on Purdue University’s campus.

“The key indicator of chip performance is really the size of the transistors and devices, which are the building blocks of computer chips,” said Zhihong Chen, director of Purdue University’s Burke Nanotechnology Center, pushing microchip technology into the future.

“Right now we’re talking about a few atoms in each silicon transistor. That’s the purpose of the entire facility,” Chen said. “We are working hard to make the next generation of transistors better than current technology. The computer chips of the future will be more powerful and more energy efficient.”

Not just an RV anymore

Thanks to the efforts of Purdue University and other college campuses in the state, Indiana believes it is an attractive location for manufacturers looking to build new microchip facilities.

“Purdue alone, as a top four engineering school, produces more engineers each year than the next top three,” said Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb. “When You’re able to access that talent, and when you’re able to access the cost of doing business in Indiana, that’s why more and more people are saying, Indiana.”

Holcomb is in the final year of his eight-year term in the state’s top office. He hopes to transform Indiana into a recreational vehicle or “RV capital” of the country.

“We produce more than 80 percent of North America’s RV production in one state,” he told VOA. “Not only do we live up to our reputation as the number one manufacturing state per capita in the U.S., but we increasingly embrace U.S. mobility. s future.”

As the U.S. increases investment in domestic microchip development and manufacturing, Holcomb is spearheading efforts to make Indiana the next great technology hub. “If we want to compete globally, we have to get smarter, healthier, better equipped, and we have to continue to invest in the quality of our venues,” Holcomb told VOA.

His vision is shared by other lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, a co-sponsor of the bipartisan CHIP and Science Act, which promises domestic More than $50 billion in federal funding is available for microchip development.

‘we promise’

Indiana is now home to one of the nation’s 31 designated technology and innovation hubs, helping it receive hundreds of millions of dollars in grants designed to attract technology-driven businesses.

“The signal it sends to the rest of the world [is] “We’re engaged, we’re committed, we’re focused,” Holcomb said. “We understand that economic development, economic security and national security go hand in hand.”

Indiana’s hard work is paying off.

In April this year, South Korean microchip maker SK Hynix announced plans to build a $4 billion factory near Purdue University to produce next-generation high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, chips that are critical for artificial intelligence applications.

The facility is expected to begin operations in 2028 and create more than 1,000 new jobs. While U.S. chipmaker SkyWater also plans to invest nearly $2 billion in the new LEAP Innovation District near Purdue, Indiana, the state recently lost a bid to chipmaker Intel, which chose Ohio to build two new factory.

“Companies tend to like to go to places that already have infrastructure and supply chains,” Purdue’s Lundstrom said. “That’s a challenge for us because this is a new industry to us. So we have to solve the chicken-and-egg problem, and we’re starting to solve that problem.”

Lundstrom said the CHIP and Science Act and the federal funding that comes with it are helping Indiana step up competition with other U.S. regions known for microchip development, such as California’s Silicon Valley and Arizona.

What could help Indiana gain an edge are its natural resources — plenty of land and water, as well as regular weather patterns, all of which are critical to the sensitive processes required to make microchips in large manufacturing centers.