SK Group Chairman Tae-won Choi said the group is searching worldwide, including in the United States, for candidate sites for a new memory chip production base for SK hynix (000660.KS). His plan is to also review building a memory front-end fab in the US if production conditions such as power, water, skilled workforce, and supply chains are met. This effectively formalizes the possibility of expanding the scope of US investment to memory production, following the advanced packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana.
On the 10th local time, after attending the "Opening Bell" ceremony at the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, Choi was asked in an interview with CNBC about the possibility of investing in a memory fab in the US. "We are currently conducting due diligence not only in the US but across the world to find a suitable location," he said. "If we find a suitable location in the US, we will invest."
He attached conditions to a US investment, however. "Building a memory fab is not an easy task," Choi explained. "It requires power, clean water, land, and workforce, as well as an ecosystem that can support the supply chain." This means that not only the scale of US government support but also the infrastructure to stably operate large-scale semiconductor plants will be key variables in deciding the investment region.
SK hynix is currently building an advanced packaging production base in Indiana with an investment of about $4 billion (about 60 trillion won). The plant will handle advanced packaging that connects high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators. If a front-end fab that directly produces memory wafers is also established in the US, SK hynix's local supply chain would expand one step further from packaging to production.
Separately from the memory fab, Choi also signaled large-scale investment across the US AI industry. "We expect there will be investment of at least tens of billions of dollars in AI, AI data centers, related technologies, and the startup sector," he said that day, adding, "We are exploring various forms of AI business joint ventures with partners." He added, "We expect enormous investment to be made soon."
Despite Samsung Electronics' HBM Pursuit, Chey Says "Customers Demand More SK hynix HBM"
He expressed strong confidence in memory demand driven by the spread of AI. His judgment is that whereas the memory market was once determined by population and sales of hardware such as smartphones and PCs, in the AI era, agents, robots, and physical AI are creating new demand.
"In the AI era, the demand structure itself has changed," Choi said. "AI agents, physical AI, and robots require enormous amounts of memory chips, so demand is growing exponentially." He continued, "We announced that we would double production capacity within five years, but customers say that alone is not enough and are demanding more volume."
He also drew a line regarding concerns that big tech companies are developing architectures to reduce memory usage in response to rising HBM prices. "There are no signs whatsoever of the HBM market shrinking," Choi countered.
Regarding the situation of Samsung Electronics pursuing in the HBM market, Choi said, "Currently supply is short and all partner companies want more (of our HBM) volume." He said, "Not only HBM but also existing DRAM—they are asking us to double the order volume."
He also stated a policy of flexibly managing the pricing terms of long-term supply contracts by customer. "Some customers want to set prices freely, and some customers want fixed prices," Choi explained. "We are not applying a uniform rule but customizing long-term contracts by product and customer."
He also expected an effect of attracting global talent and capital through this Nasdaq entry. Choi said that utilizing stock options based on US shares would make it easier to recruit core global talent, and assessed that the need to build a new governance system in line with the inflow of US and global shareholders has grown.
"Fifteen years after SK acquired hynix, a long-held dream has become reality," Choi said. "Entry into the global capital market will provide various financial options that we can utilize going forward, as well as new momentum."
