Nvidia provider SK Hynix to construct $6.8 billion chip plant in South Korea

Reminiscence chip big SK Hynix on Friday stated it plans to take a position 9.4 trillion Korean received ($6.8 billion) to construct a brand new semiconductor manufacturing plant in an rising chip hub in South Korea.

The fabrication plant — or fab — will likely be inbuilt South Korea’s Yongin Semiconductor Cluster simply south of the nation’s capital of Seoul, the place the federal government is seeking to construct an enormous complicated of chip operations.

This will likely be SK Hynix’s first manufacturing plant within the cluster, with building slated to start in March subsequent 12 months and to finish the mission in Might 2027.

South Korea’s SK Hynix is among the world’s high three makers of reminiscence chips, which go into all the pieces from laptops to servers. Extra lately, the corporate has had success with its high-bandwidth reminiscence, which it provides to Nvidia.

Earlier this 12 months, SK Hynix dedicated 120 trillion received to construct 4 fabs within the Yongin cluster. The remaining three will likely be arrange at a later date.

The aggressive funding underscores each SK Hynix and the South Korean authorities’s push to take care of the nation’s lead within the space of reminiscence, which is essential to synthetic intelligence functions. Seoul has dedicated billions of {dollars} in assist of its forays in semiconductors — a know-how that has more and more been seen as strategic to governments.

South Korea can also be house to Samsung, the world’s greatest reminiscence chip maker.

SK Hynix has been driving the AI wave and its partnership with Nvidia, this week reporting that second-quarter revenue got here in at its highest degree in six years.