SK Hynix to invest 54 trillion won building two new memory chip plants

Published Aug 7, 09:02 AM UTC

SK Hynix announced a 54 trillion Korean won ($38.1 billion) investment to build two new memory chip manufacturing plants in South Korea, responding to surging demand driven by AI infrastructure and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) needs. The Yongin Y2 facility will produce DRAM and HBM, breaking ground in July 2027 with first cleanroom in June 2029. The Cheongju M17 plant will produce NAND memory, breaking ground in February 2027 with first cleanroom in December 2028. Memory prices have surged due to supply shortages and strong demand from companies like Nvidia. Analysts note that while multi-vendor expansions will increase supply through 2028, demand is growing faster, so memory prices are unlikely to soften before end of 2028. SK Hynix faces increasing competition from Samsung, which regained top DRAM market share in Q2.