Construction begins at the end of this month and will be completed in November next year.
Produced DRAM before Yongin Cluster
(Seoul = Yonhap Infomax) Reporter Sujin Yoo = SK Hynix is investing 120 trillion won to create a semiconductor cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do.[000660]is also building a DRAM production plant in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do. A total investment cost of more than 20 trillion won was set, including 5.3 trillion won in fab construction costs.
The plan is to preemptively respond to the rapidly increasing demand for ‘artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors’ by expanding the production capacity of next-generation DRAM, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM). The schedule was set to start mass production before the first fab of the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster is completed (the first half of 2027).
SK Hynix held a board meeting on the 24th and approved the new fab (M15X) construction plan as originally planned.
On this day, all 10 board members, including Chairman Ha Young-gu and CEO Kwak No-jeong, attended the board meeting. President Kwak and Director Han Ae-ra attended via video conference.
SK Hynix selected as Cheongju M15X new DRAM production base
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The company decided to build a next-generation DRAM factory in Cheongju, believing that increasing DRAM capacity was a priority in order to increase HBM production.
This is because, along with HBM, which is expected to grow at an average annual growth rate of more than 60%, demand for general DRAM is also expected to steadily increase, centering on high-capacity DDR5 module products for servers.
The plan is to begin construction at the end of this month and complete it by November next year. If mass production begins later, new DRAMs can be produced before the Yongin Cluster fab, which is scheduled to be completed in 2027. Equipment investment will also be carried out sequentially, with a total investment of more than 20 trillion won in the long term.
In particular, the company explained that M15X has the advantage of optimizing HBM production as it is adjacent to M15, which is expanding its TSV capacity. TSV is an interconnection technology that drills thousands of tiny holes in a DRAM chip and connects the holes in the upper and lower layers of the chip with electrodes that penetrate vertically.
SK Hynix plans to proceed with planned domestic investments, including M15X and the Yongin Cluster, without disruption.
Currently, the site development progress rate for the Yongin cluster is approximately 26%, and construction is progressing 3 percentage points faster than the target. The construction of infrastructure such as power, water, and roads is also faster than originally planned. The company plans to begin construction of its first fab in Yongin in March next year and complete it in May 2027.
President Kwak No-jeong said, “M15X will become a core facility that supplies AI memory around the world and become a stepping stone between the company’s present and future.”
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This article was published at 19:35 on the Infomax financial information terminal.
Tags: Hynix building DRAM factory Cheongju maintains HBMs leadership IBCompany Text article
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