SK Hynix, one of South Korea’s leading suppliers of high-bandwidth memory, plans to invest approximately 19 trillion won (approximately $12.9 billion) in the construction of a chip packaging factory in Cheongju City, North Chungcheong Province.
The company said the new factory will help meet the burgeoning demand for AI memory and support the government’s economic balancing plan. The company explained, “With the average annual growth rate of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) expected to be 33% from 2025 to 2030, the importance of proactively responding to the growing demand for HBM has increased significantly.In order to stably respond to the demand for AI memory, we have decided to make this new investment.”
The company also said that ongoing discussions about regional investment factored into the company’s decisions, making it clear that the decision to diversify growth outside of major cities makes sense. The project is scheduled to begin in April and is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.
The investment plan follows SK Hynix’s announcement that it has opened a customer exhibition booth at the Venetian Expo to showcase its products. next generation AI Memory Solutions at CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
The company said, “Under the theme of “Innovative AI, sustainable for tomorrow,” we plan to exhibit a wide range of next-generation memory solutions optimized for AI, and we will work closely with customers to create new value in the age of AI.”
The company has previously operated both SK Group’s joint exhibition and customer exhibition booths at CES. This year, the company plans to focus on customer exhibition booths, expand touchpoints with key customers and discuss possible cooperation.
SK Hynix announces that new factory will operate in conjunction with other facilities in Cheongju
SK Hynix new facility plays a central role in packaging HBM and other AI memory products. Once the project is complete, the company will open three major advanced packaging centers in Icheon, Cheongju and West Lafayette.
The company’s Cheongju campus is already home to several major facilities, including the M11 and M12 factories, the M15 semiconductor manufacturing facility, and the P&T3 packaging and testing facility. So far, the company says it expects strong operational synergies between the M15X fab, which is scheduled to begin receiving large volumes of wafers in February, and the soon-to-be-established P&T7 packaging facility. After the P&T7 facility becomes operational, Cheongju City will support the complete production stage of NAND flash, DRAM, and HBM, he explained.
Regarding this project, SK Hynix said, “Through our investment in Cheongju P&T7, we aim to go beyond short-term efficiency and profits to strengthen the country’s industrial base in the medium to long term and support the construction of a structure in which the metropolitan area and local regions can grow together.”
Samsung is also expanding HBM production capacity
SK Hynix rival samsungalso plans to increase HBM’s production capacity. The company said it is preparing to increase HBM production and plans to increase production capacity by about 50% in 2026 to meet growing demand from top client Nvidia.
In an earnings conference call last October, the Suwon chipmaker outlined plans to expand production, with the intention of building a new manufacturing base. At the time, Kim Jaejoong, vice president of Samsung Electronics’ memory business, said, “We are internally considering the possibility of expanding HBM production.”
Additionally, after a high-level meeting in November, the South Korean chipmaker announced plans to invest $41.5 billion in a P5 facility in Pyeongtaek, with plans to begin operations in 2028. The planned spending will be about double the amount Samsung spent on its previous factory in Pyeongtaek.
Notably, Samsung also said it is receiving active government support to accelerate the P5 construction process. At the time, there were also reports that the company was developing the Hirasawa cluster, P6.
KB Securities currently projects that the company’s DRAM capacity will increase by approximately 60,000 wafers per month at P4 through the second quarter of 2026. It also topped Nvidia’s internal tests for 6th generation HBM (HBM4), outperforming SK Hynix and Micron for use with Rubin processors, according to more reports. The chipmaker’s HBM4 exceeded expectations with 11 Gbps per pin, beating Nvidia’s 10 Gbps standard.
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