Memory chip giant SK Hynix said on Friday it plans to invest 9.4 trillion Korean won ($6.8 billion) to build a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in South Korea’s emerging semiconductor hub.
The fab will be located in the Yongin semiconductor cluster, just south of the capital Seoul, where the South Korean government plans to build a large-scale semiconductor manufacturing facility.
This will be SK Hynix’s first manufacturing plant in the cluster, with construction scheduled to begin in March next year and be completed in May 2027.
South Korea’s SK Hynix is ​​one of the world’s top three makers of memory chips used in everything from laptops to servers, and has recently seen success with its high-bandwidth memory supply to Nvidia.
SK Hynix invested 120 trillion won earlier this year to build four factories in the Yongin cluster, with the remaining three to be set up at a later date.
The aggressive investment underscores efforts by SK Hynix and the South Korean government to maintain South Korea’s leadership in memory, a sector crucial for artificial intelligence applications, as the government pours billions of dollars into supporting the company’s advance into semiconductors, which it sees as an increasingly strategic technology.
South Korea is also home to Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip maker.
SK Hynix is ​​riding the AI ​​wave and its partnership with Nvidia, reporting its highest second-quarter profit in six years this week.