Overview
- SK Hynix’s board approved the roughly 54 trillion won package on Friday, allocating 35.2 trillion won to a Yongin Y2 DRAM/HBM fab and 19.1 trillion won to a Cheongju M17 NAND fab.
- The company set firm construction and first cleanroom dates with M17 breaking ground in February 2027 and its first cleanroom targeted for December 2028, while Y2 will start construction in July 2027 and target a first cleanroom in June 2029.
- Y2 is planned to produce high‑bandwidth memory and next‑generation DRAM for AI accelerators, and M17 will focus on enterprise NAND used for SSDs and AI storage to meet rising inference and cache needs.
- Markets reacted negatively to the announcement, with SK Hynix shares falling about 5% as investors flagged the near‑term capital intensity and the long timeline before new supply eases shortages.
- The move follows tightened U.S. export controls that revoked validated end‑user status for China operations, prompting SK Hynix to review strategic options for its Chongqing backend site while citing industry forecasts of sustained 19% annual demand growth through 2030 and long lead times for new fabs.