SK Hynix (000660) will participate in a semiconductor research and development infrastructure project worth up to 7 trillion won ($5 billion) in Silicon Valley, led by the world's largest semiconductor equipment maker.
According to Applied Materials (AMAT) on the 11th, SK Hynix President Kwak Noh-jung and AMAT Semiconductor Products Group President Prabu Raja signed a long-term cooperation agreement to accelerate the development and adoption of next-generation DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Through this agreement, SK Hynix joins as a founding member of AMAT's EPIC Center project.
The EPIC Center is a semiconductor R&D facility that AMAT is building in Silicon Valley with an investment of up to $5 billion, targeting operations this year. The center brings together semiconductor manufacturers and materials, components, and equipment companies to pursue new technology development. All three major memory companies—Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and U.S.-based Micron—have now become founding members of the EPIC Center.
SK Hynix plans to dispatch engineers to the EPIC Center to jointly conduct long-term semiconductor R&D projects for next-generation memory. The two companies will prioritize research on new material exploration, complex process integration methods, and implementing advanced packaging for HBM-class products. They also plan to link with AMAT's advanced packaging R&D infrastructure in Singapore.
"The biggest challenge in artificial intelligence development is the gap between memory speed and processor performance," President Kwak said. "We look forward to working with AMAT at the EPIC Center to develop next-generation memory solutions optimized for AI."
Meanwhile, SK Hynix is accelerating the launch of an "AI Company" to be established in Silicon Valley with a $10 billion investment. Following SK Innovation's decision to invest $380 million in Hynix's U.S. AI Company, holding company SK also announced it will invest $250 million on the same day. Other affiliates including SK Telecom are also mentioned as potential investors.
