hynix

Aug. 9 (Asia Today) — SK hynix is rapidly expanding its manufacturing base in South Korea as the chipmaker prepares for continued growth in global demand for artificial intelligence memory through the end of the decade.

The company is increasing capacity for high-bandwidth memory, DRAM, NAND flash and advanced semiconductor packaging across its major production sites while preparing another large-scale manufacturing hub in southwestern South Korea.

Industry research firm Omdia forecasts demand for DRAM and NAND memory to grow at an average annual rate of about 19% through 2030.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has also said he expects the global shortage of memory chips to continue through 2030.

That outlook is driving SK hynix to expand production capacity at several locations simultaneously.

Yongin becomes long-term DRAM and HBM production base

In Yongin, south of Seoul, SK hynix is focused on securing large-scale manufacturing capacity for long-term memory demand.

The company plans to build four semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, in phases at the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster.

Construction is underway on the first fab, known as Y1, while preparations are moving forward for subsequent facilities.

SK hynix plans to invest about 600 trillion won, or approximately $407 billion, in Yongin over the long term, making the complex a major production center for high-bandwidth memory and next-generation DRAM.

The company’s board Friday approved 35.2 trillion won ($25 billion) in investment for the second phase of the Yongin project through 2031.

Construction of the second fab, Y2, is scheduled to begin in July 2027, with its first cleanroom expected to become operational in June 2029.

The facility is expected to produce advanced DRAM products, including high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers.

Cheongju expands from NAND into AI memory hub

SK hynix is also significantly broadening the role of its Cheongju production base in central South Korea.

Cheongju was historically centered on NAND flash production, but the company is adding capacity for next-generation DRAM, advanced packaging and enterprise solid-state drives.

M15X is being developed as a new DRAM production base after SK hynix accelerated the project in response to rapidly growing AI memory demand.

The company plans to expand production of high-bandwidth memory and other next-generation DRAM products at M15X while linking the facility with nearby packaging and testing infrastructure.

P&T7, which began construction in April, is dedicated to advanced packaging for AI memory products, including high-bandwidth memory.

The facility will handle semiconductor packaging and wafer testing, adding back-end manufacturing capacity to SK hynix’s existing front-end wafer fabrication operations.

SK hynix announced in January that it plans to invest about 19 trillion won, or $12.9 billion, in P&T7.

The company has said Cheongju will become a major center for AI memory production as demand for high-bandwidth memory continues to rise.

NAND capacity will also expand through M17.

SK hynix’s board recently approved 19.1 trillion won, or about $12.9 billion, for the new facility.

Construction of M17 is scheduled to begin in February 2027, with its first cleanroom expected to open in December 2028.

The facility will produce NAND flash memory for applications ranging from personal computers to enterprise and AI servers.

New $271 billion semiconductor hub planned in southwest

SK hynix is also planning a major new production base in southwestern South Korea.

The company plans to invest about 400 trillion won, or approximately $271 billion, in phases to develop a new semiconductor cluster beyond its existing Yongin and Cheongju operations.

The precise location, fab configuration and construction timetable have not yet been finalized.

The company has said rapid growth in AI services could eventually create memory demand that cannot be met by its existing expansion plans alone.

The southwestern project is therefore expected to become another major pillar of SK hynix’s long-term manufacturing network.

Together with planned investments of about 600 trillion won ($407 billion) in Yongin and 100 trillion won ($67.9 billion) in Cheongju, the southwestern project forms part of an approximately 1,100 trillion won ($781.3 billion) long-term domestic semiconductor investment strategy.

Icheon retains research and advanced production role

SK hynix’s headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, is expected to retain its role as a major research, development and manufacturing center.

The site operates the M10, M14 and M16 fabs, with M16 serving as a key production base for advanced DRAM.

As new production sites are added elsewhere in South Korea, Icheon is expected to remain an important center for both research and advanced memory manufacturing.

The overall strategy combines continued use of existing facilities with the addition of substantial new manufacturing capacity to respond to rising AI memory demand.

Chongqing sale review separate from South Korea expansion

Separately, SK hynix is reviewing options for its semiconductor packaging and testing plant in Chongqing, China, including a possible sale.

The company stressed that the review of its Chongqing operation is separate from the expansion of production capacity in South Korea.

“Nothing has been decided, and we may ultimately decide not to sell it,” an SK hynix official said. “It is one of several options being considered as part of our global fab operations.”

The official said the company’s new investments in South Korea are intended to secure additional production capacity.

The Chongqing facility handles semiconductor packaging and testing, the back-end manufacturing processes that prepare chips for final use.

SK hynix’s expansion strategy reflects the increasingly important role of high-bandwidth memory and other advanced memory products in AI computing, where rapidly growing server deployments are driving demand for both processing power and memory capacity.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260810010002802

SEOUL, July 30 (UPI) — South Korea’s SK hynix posted record earnings in the second quarter of this year amid the AI boom. However, shares of the world’s No. 2 memory chipmaker have continued to plunge on the Seoul bourse.

The company noted Wednesday that it logged sales of $55.1 billion and operating profit of $42.1 billion during the April-June period. Revenue more than tripled from a year ago, while profit increased more than sixfold.

“Driven by sustained demand growth from expanding AI infrastructure investments, high-performance products for AI servers led price increases, enabling the company to surpass its previous record set in the prior quarter,” SK hynix said in a statement.

“With major tech companies increasing their AI infrastructure investments, additional supply requests continue to mount. As these investments are supported by revenue generated from AI services, the momentum in memory demand is expected to persist,” it added.

Despite the stellar performance and solid outlook, its shares have struggled to find their footing on the Korea Exchange. They fell 14.65% on Monday before dropping another 9.61% on Wednesday and 5.64% on Thursday.

Since reaching a record high in late June, SK hynix’s market capitalization has fallen by more than half in just over a month. This came after its shares had surged more than tenfold in the year through late June.

Observers attribute the bearish run to a combination of factors, including lower-than-expected earnings, concerns over the sustainability of the AI boom and the emergence of Chinese competitors such as recently listed CXMT.

Although SK hynix chalked up a record bottom line in the previous three months, the figure came in about 5% lower than the market consensus. There are also questions over whether SK hynix has secured sufficient long-term agreements, or LTAs, with customers to reduce uncertainty about future earnings.

“The market remains skeptical about LTAs, so we believe it will take time for confidence to build,” NH Investment & Securities analyst Ryu Young-ho said in a report, reducing his target price for SK hynix by 17.1%.

Other brokerage houses, including Shinhan Securities, Hanwha Investment & Securities, and Samsung Securities, also followed suit.

“We revised down our operating profit estimates for SK hynix for 2026 and 2027 by 7% and 9%, respectively, to reflect a more conservative price outlook,” Shinhan Securities analyst Kim Hyung-tae said in a report, cutting his target price by 35.7%.

However, some experts remained optimistic, raising their target prices on expectations that SK hynix shares will eventually rebound.

“The main reason second-quarter operating profit fell short of the market consensus was that DRAM price growth was weaker than expected,” Korea Investment & Securities analyst Chae Min-sook said.

“However, this was caused not by slowing demand, but by the postponement of some shipments, which should instead contribute to improved earnings in the third quarter,” Chae added, raising the target price by 24%.

DB Securities came up with a similar view.

Leveraged ETFs tied to memory chipmakers

Also at the center of controversy are leveraged exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, linked to individual stocks. They debuted in late May and are tied to the shares of the country’s two blue-chip companies, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

Investors have complained of heavy losses. Samsung, the world’s top memory chipmaker, has also seen its share price plummet in recent weeks.

Against this backdrop, critics argue that the new products have amplified market volatility by encouraging short-term speculative trading. Over the past two months, KOSPI circuit breakers have been triggered repeatedly by sharp market swings.

Because these products magnify both gains and losses, they tend to attract retail investors seeking quick profits, potentially leading to larger price swings during periods of market uncertainty, according to experts.

During a parliamentary session on Wednesday, lawmakers summoned top financial officials to criticized the leveraged products and the market slump.

“The government has encouraged people to sell their real estate and invest in stocks. But after the stock market crashed, retail investors ended up suffering heavy losses,” Rep. Park Jun-tae from the main opposition People Power Party said.

In response, Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon promised to do everything possible to minimize market-related volatility but failed to present specific measures.

“South Korean equities have been buoyed by the strong performances of memory chipmakers. But the rally overshot because of a few factors, including the debut of the single-stock 2x leveraged ETFs,” economic commentator Kim Kyeong-joon, formerly vice chairman at Deloitte Consulting Korea, told UPI.

“Once market sentiment turned bearish, the leveraged ETFs accelerated the market’s decline. The problem is that the products cannot simply be abolished because doing so would create even greater market disruption,” he added.

SK Hynix (SKHYV) has detailed its comprehensive financial health and operational performance for the three months ended March 31, 2026, in its recent Form F-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company reported a massive surge in

Howard Lutnick, US commerce secretary, during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, June 22, 2026. President Trump signed executive orders Monday aimed at accelerating quantum research, laying the groundwork for federal agencies to adopt the technology and strengthen US defenses against cyberattacks. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

July 10 (Asia Today) — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to expand production in the United States as Micron accelerates a major domestic investment plan, raising questions over whether Washington is signaling continued shortages in artificial intelligence memory chips.

Lutnick referred directly to Samsung and SK Hynix at Micron’s large-scale investment site in the United States. Micron is building a production plant in Clay, N.Y.

Lutnick said he wanted to bring Micron competitors Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to the United States and have them build production facilities there.

The remarks drew attention in South Korea because Samsung and SK Hynix recently announced plans to invest 800 trillion won, about $530 billion, in the Honam region in southwestern South Korea. Industry officials had already expected Washington to push the Korean chipmakers to increase U.S. investment.

Because Lutnick directly named the two companies and urged investment, attention is now focused on how the remarks could affect Samsung and SK Hynix.

Some analysts also said the call for production investment in the United States, the central market for artificial intelligence, may indicate that memory semiconductors remain in short supply despite debate over whether the chip market is nearing a peak.

Micron said Wednesday it will expand investment in U.S. fabrication plants and technology to more than $250 billion by 2035. The company has set a goal of producing 40% of its DRAM in the United States and will move up part of its New York fabrication plant construction schedule.

Lutnick’s message that he also wants Samsung and SK Hynix to invest locally is fueling expectations that the surge in semiconductor demand could continue for some time.

Some stock market analysts have recently raised concerns that large artificial intelligence data center operators, known as hyperscalers, could slow the pace of investment. But industry officials still expect supply and demand to begin moving toward balance no earlier than 2028.

Others see Lutnick’s remarks as a sign that the U.S. government is reviving pressure for local investment after a quieter period. The comments came one day before SK Hynix’s Nasdaq listing of American depositary receipts, prompting speculation that Washington may want funds raised through the listing to be invested in the United States rather than South Korea.

Since 2025, the United States has imposed reciprocal tariffs and temporary import surcharges. Semiconductors are currently excluded, but the U.S. government has suggested it could impose tariffs of up to 100% on all semiconductor imports. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump pressured memory chipmakers to invest in the United States, saying companies that do not build plants domestically could face 100% tariffs.

With Samsung and SK Hynix recently announcing a combined 800 trillion won investment plan in South Korea, industry observers said pressure for additional U.S. investment could grow. Lutnick’s latest comments were seen as moving in that direction.

Similar views have emerged overseas. Japan’s Nikkei recently said that because Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together account for about 60% of the global memory market, the U.S. administration could raise monopoly concerns and demand relocation or investment in the United States.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260710010003905

South Korean computer chip maker SK Hynix has raised $26.5bn (£19.8bn) in its New York share offering, marking the largest ever listing by a foreign firm in the US.

The company, a key supplier to artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia, said on Thursday that it had sold 177.9 million American depositary shares for $149 each. The shares are set to begin trading on Friday on the Nasdaq.

In May, SK Hynix saw its market value top $1tn in its home country, lifted by the boom in demand for AI chips.

Its share price has more than tripled in South Korea this year, which along with Samsung Electronics has helped boost the benchmark Kospi index by more than 70% over the same period.

SK Hynix is one of the world’s leading memory chip makers. The industry has been given a major boost by the hundreds of billions being spent on AI.

Shares in rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron have more than doubled in recent months.

The US listing gives SK Hynix easier access to huge amounts of potential investment from the world’s biggest economy, which has fewer barriers than South Korea, said Seoul National University finance professor Jaewon Choi.

Traders are closely watching the listing as a “yardstick to test the water” for whether investor enthusiasm for memory chip makers will continue, Choi said.

The AI boom has triggered a rush of companies raising money on the the stock market.

In June, GrokAI owner SpaceX became the world’s biggest ever listing as it raised $85.7bn.

Meanwhile, AI developers Anthropic and OpenAI are preparing to go public, with valuations of more $1tn.

Demand for SK Hynix’s offering was reportedly over seven times more than the number of shares available, highlighting the strong investor appetite for a key company in the AI supply chain.

Each American depositary share is equivalent to a tenth of a Seoul-traded common share, SK Hynix said.

The offering gives US investors a way to buy SK Hynix shares without having to trade via an overseas stock exchange.

The company has pledged major investments to develop South Korea’s chip making and AI capabilities in the coming years.

The country’s government is likely to be counting on SK Hynix’s US listing to raise funds that can support the firm’s domestic investments, said Hanyang University business professor Yun Youngjin.

But the Nasdaq listing carries some risks, especially if investors move money towards the US and away from South Korea’s stock market, Yun added.

In June, the country’s government unveiled plans for more than $880bn of investments in partnership with SK Hynix and Samsung.

Both SK Hynix and Samsung have stock market valuations of more that $1tn, joining growing group of firms which includes tech giants Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Google-owner Alphabet.

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix, known for its high-bandwidth memory chips, is preparing to raise roughly $28 billion (€24.5bn) on Wall Street, a sum surpassed only by SpaceX’s record flotation last month.

It is an extraordinary outcome for a firm that once survived on job cuts and asset sales.

Pricing is due on Thursday, with trading expected to begin on Friday under the ticker SKHY.

SK hynix is issuing 17.79 million new shares in the form of American depositary receipts (ADRs), each representing a tenth of a Seoul-listed share, and cornerstone investors including Baillie Gifford and funds run by Coatue Management have signalled interest in up to $7 billion (€6.1bn) worth of stock.

The target was trimmed from an initial $29.6 billion (€25.9bn) after the shares slipped in recent weeks.

ADRs are certificates traded on a US exchange that stand in for shares held abroad, letting American investors buy into a foreign company without dealing in a foreign currency or market.

Unlike a conventional flotation, this is not SK hynix’s stock market debut. Its primary listing remains on Seoul’s Kospi index, and the Nasdaq offering simply opens a second, dollar-denominated avenue for investors to gain exposure.

The listing arrives with the company already worth more than $1 trillion (€876bn), a threshold also crossed by rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron, after a surge of more than 200% this year.

Proceeds will fund new fabrication plants, chiefly a vast cluster in Yongin, plus its first US packaging facility in Indiana.

The move is partly about valuation. Korean-listed chipmakers have long traded at a discount to American peers, and a Nasdaq listing offers a chance to close that gap.

The AI memory boom — and the risks

The AI build-out has transformed the industry’s economics.

As hyperscalers pour hundreds of billions into data centres, memory prices have exploded, with DRAM up 44% and NAND flash up 53% in a single quarter, according to Citi Research, and manufacturers have already sold most of their 2026 production.

SK hynix reported first-quarter revenue above 50 trillion won (€29bn) and operating margins north of 70%, figures unheard of for a chipmaker, and commands about 60% of the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, according to Counterpoint Research.

Yet the timing is delicate.

Memory has always been a brutally cyclical business. The AI-driven rally that transformed SK hynix has begun to wobble as chip stocks sold off sharply across Asia last week, and Samsung lost more than $100 billion (€87.5bn) in market value despite posting a record profit.

Investors are increasingly asking whether the vast sums being spent on AI infrastructure will earn a return, a question that the Bank for International Settlements raised in late June when it warned that the boom could seed the next financial crash.

Built, broken and rebuilt

Those concerns are not new for SK hynix.

SK hynix traces its roots to Gukdo Construction, founded in 1949, which moved into electronics in 1983 as Hyundai Electronics, an arm of the Hyundai empire.

The Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s brought disaster. Under an IMF-backed restructuring of the Korean economy, Hyundai absorbed rival LG’s semiconductor business, creating a giant that promptly buckled under its own debts.

Salvation came in stages.

Renamed Hynix Semiconductor in 2001, a contraction of “high” and “electronics”, the firm cut jobs, shed assets and split from Hyundai. Profits returned, but the violent swings of the DRAM market left it perpetually exposed.

Starved of capital, it was rescued in 2012 by the telecoms conglomerate SK Group, becoming SK hynix. The takeover proved decisive. SK Group poured money into high-bandwidth memory, then a costly and unprofitable technology that few believed in.

Today it has become the scarcest commodity in AI computing. And the firm employs nearly 46,900 people.

Additional sources • AFP

June 18 (UPI) — South Korea’s SK hynix said Thursday that the company has shipped samples of its next-generation high-bandwidth memory chips, or HBM4E, to major customers.

SK hynix provided samples of the 12-stack HBM4E, which it says shows improvements in both performance and power efficiency, on schedule, according to the tech giant.

The firm noted that the new product delivers a data-processing speed of up to 16Gbps per pin while enhancing power efficiency by more than 20% compared with previous-generation models.

The corporation stated that the HBM4E features an upgraded interface and optimized architecture, which reduce data-transfer latency while ensuring reliable performance in high-bandwidth environments.

SK hynix expected the improvements to enable clients to process data more efficiently in AI data centers and large-scale computing systems.

Amid the AI boom, high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, has emerged as one of the most sought-after semiconductor products. SK hynix and its local rival, Samsung Electronics, are global leaders in the HBM supply chain.

“SK hynix has laid the foundation to strengthen its AI leadership with HBM4E based on its market-leading technological capabilities and manufacturing expertise,” SK hynix Chief Development Officer Ahn Hyun said in a statement.

“Through close collaboration with our partners, we will deliver the value needed in the market while reinforcing our technology leadership as a full-stack AI memory creator,” he added.

June 2 (Asia Today) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the SK hynix booth at Computex 2026 in Taipei on Tuesday, meeting SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won for a second straight day as the companies deepen their artificial intelligence partnership.

Huang, who met privately with Chey on Monday, examined SK hynix’s major memory products and wrote “Please Make More” on an HBM4E wafer displayed at the booth.

Chey also signaled that SK plans to expand production. He said the group aims to double wafer production capacity within five years as demand for memory chips is expected to surge.

Huang toured the booth with Chey and SK hynix executives. He signed the HBM4E wafer with the message “Please Make More” and wrote “LOVE SOCAMM” on a 192GB SOCAMM product.

SK hynix currently supplies Nvidia with its latest high-bandwidth memory, including sixth-generation HBM4, as well as high-performance low-power LPDDR5X memory. Huang said in his GTC Taipei keynote Monday that Nvidia will begin full-scale production of its next-generation AI accelerator, Vera Rubin, in the second half of this year.

As AI demand increases and memory supply shortages deepen, Chey said SK is moving quickly to expand production.

“The memory bottleneck is expected to continue until 2030,” Chey told reporters at the SK hynix booth. “We are pushing forward at full speed to expand production capacity.”

“Building new memory fabs requires enormous investment and takes at least three years,” he said. “Despite these challenges, we plan to double wafer production capacity over the next five years.”

It was the first time SK Group publicly presented a specific goal of doubling its overall production capacity within five years. SK hynix is making large-scale investments to strengthen production capacity, including projects at its M15X and P&T7 facilities in Cheongju, the Yongin semiconductor cluster and an advanced packaging plant in the United States.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260602010000823

SK Hynix (HXSCL) plans to double its memory-chip wafer production capacity over the next five years as it works to address soaring demand for AI-related memory chips.

Chairman Chey Tae-won told reporters in Taipei that the company is responding to