IT News on October 15th: Reuters reported today that SK Hynix is attempting to exchange for permission to introduce more semiconductors manufactured in the United States to its factory in Dalian, China, by building a new factory in the U.S.
Two people familiar with the matter revealed that SK Hynix hopes to provide financial support for its new factory in the United States by increasing the production capacity of its factories in China, and gradually expand its production layout in the US.
The U.S. government is encouraging overseas semiconductor companies such as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics to build factories in the United States in order to enhance America's domestic manufacturing capabilities and create jobs. At the same time, with the growing demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing data centers, the global supply of storage chips is tightening, and NAND the price of flash memory continues to rise, which also encourages related manufacturers to consider expanding production.
According to Reuters, SK, a US subsidiary of Solidigm, hopes to install more equipment in the areas of the factory in Dalian, China that have not yet been fully utilized, for the production of NAND flash memory.
According to the introduction, the semiconductor equipment used in the Dalian factory comes from American manufacturers, including Lamina Corporation ( Lam Research ), Applied Materials ( Applied Materials ), and KLA Corporation ( KLA ). The relevant factory area is named Mod B and was completed in 2023. However, due to the sluggish storage market at that time, the equipment installation work was not completed.
According to informed sources, some equipment has already been installed in the area, and there is still room to accommodate more production tools. Solidigm has applied for an export license, hoping to purchase additional equipment for this area.
Hynix told Reuters that the equipment installation work for Mod B is being carried out in close consultation with the US government and with authorization. The company also emphasized that it is not currently seeking to expand the production capacity of its Mod B facility in Dalian. Solidigm declined to comment on this matter.
Reuters previously reported in September that Solidigm was considering building a NAND flash memory factory in the United States, with northern New York State being one of the main candidate locations at that time. Sources said that if the Dalian factory could increase production, the additional revenue would help cover the construction costs of the new U.S. factory and provide a transition for future expansion of local production in the U.S. Another source revealed that Solidigm is considering conducting its initial public offering (IPO) as early as 2027 to raise funds that may be used for the construction of the new factory.
In addition to the plan to build a new NAND factory in the United States, SK Hynix is also in talks with Intel to lease part of its long-planned semiconductor manufacturing facilities located in Ohio. The company has also commenced the construction of an advanced packaging factory in Indiana, which is mainly focused on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products.
