SK Hynix (000660) is establishing a NAND flash memory business hub in Silicon Valley to strengthen partnerships with local big tech companies including Nvidia.
According to industry sources on the 4th, Solidigm, SK Hynix's U.S. NAND business subsidiary, recently opened an office in San Jose, California, with approximately 100 employees.
An SK Hynix official explained, "This is intended to expand our connections with Silicon Valley." San Jose is the heart of Silicon Valley, where big tech companies such as Nvidia, Google, Apple, Intel, and Meta are concentrated. By positioning Solidigm personnel there, the company aims to strengthen sales and technical exchanges related to NAND, where demand has surged recently.
SK Hynix America, the company's Americas headquarters, is also based in San Jose, suggesting synergies among local affiliates were also considered.
Solidigm was launched in San Jose when SK Hynix acquired Intel's NAND business unit in late 2021. The company later relocated its headquarters to Rancho Cordova in Northern California in 2023. Rancho Cordova serves as an R&D hub backed by $100 million in infrastructure, but it is approximately 200 kilometers from Silicon Valley where big tech companies are clustered. For Solidigm, the San Jose office represents a comeback after three years to strengthen its sales capabilities.
NAND demand to support AI chip operations has surged recently, particularly among big tech companies, prompting SK Hynix to focus on expanding related businesses. According to market research firm TrendForce, SK Hynix's fourth-quarter NAND revenue, including Solidigm, reached $5.2 billion (7.66 trillion won), up 47.8% from the previous quarter.
NAND prices rose 90% in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year, and strong growth is expected to continue. Nvidia is further driving demand by pursuing the integration of NAND-based "Inference Context Memory Storage (ICMS)" in its next-generation AI chip "Vera Rubin." SK Hynix has been responding to these developments, including recent collaboration with SanDisk on standardizing High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a next-generation NAND-based memory technology.