Representative Image. Credit: SK Hynix
Why SK Hynix wants US approval for its China facility
Mod B is a manufacturing facility in Dalian, built in 2023. Reuters reported last month that Solidigm was considering building a NAND flash memory factory in the country.
The South Korean memory chipmaker wants Washington’s permission to export additional US-made semiconductor manufacturing equipment to its Dalian facility in China, according to a report by the news agency Reuters. The report cited two people familiar with the matter, who said SK Hynix has made this a condition for funding its planned investment in American manufacturing. Another source said that Solidigm is also weighing an initial public offering (IPO) as early as next year, which could provide additional funding for its US factory plans.
SK Hynix is reportedly seeking US approval to expand its China operations. The report claims that the company’s US unit, Solidigm, is seeking an export licence to install equipment for producing NAND flash memory chips in unused space at the Chinese site. As per the report, the company is linking its plans for a new NAND factory in the US to its ability to increase production in China. Solidigm wants to install additional equipment at SK Hynix’s Dalian facility to manufacture NAND flash memory chips. These chips power solid-state drives (SSDs), which are increasingly important for data centres supporting artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing workloads. Even after the memory market went into the doldrums, the equipment was not installed. The proposed American NAND factory is part of SK Hynix’s broader efforts to expand its manufacturing presence in the US. The company is also reportedly in talks with Intel to lease part of its planned chipmaking facility in Ohio. Separately, SK Hynix has broken ground on an advanced packaging plant in Indiana focused on high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is used in AI systems. Building semiconductor fabrication plants, commonly called fabs, requires billions of dollars and can take several years.