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SK Hynix considering US Solidigm fab The Seoul Economic Daily reports SK Hynix subsidiary Solidigm is thinking about building a US-based NAND fabrication plant, while SK Hynix has revealed more about its US AI Co operation, being launched as "SK hynix Ventures." Solidigm currently manufactures NAND chips at an old Intel plant in Dalian, China, now run by SK Hynix, and uses different technology from SK Hynix; floating gate instead of charge trap. It also uses fewer 3D NAND layers - 192, than SK Hynix which is at the 321 and 375 levels, and other manufacturers. Any upgrade to the latest NAND technology is obstructed by US tech export to China restrictions. In August, we noted SK Hynix was expanding production at Dalian by building a second fab there, but restricting the NAND technology to the 100-layer class while using more advanced 375-layer class NAND at its Cheongju plant in South Korea. This month there has been speculation about a Solidigm US IPO which would provide a Solidigm cash boost if it came to pass. Solidigm has a US sales, marketing, and R&D facility at Rancho Cordova in California. Korean industry sources say Solidigm is now looking at potential sites and reviewing terms for an east coast US fab, perhaps in upstate New York according to Reuters. A spokesperson at SK Hynix said: "Solidigm is reviewing various options to strengthen its competitiveness, but nothing has been finalized.” The Trump government wats to increase US-based memory chip fabrication. SK Hynix is investing around $4 billion (₩5.35 trillion) to build a high bandwidth memory (HBM) packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, and its chairman, Chey Tae-won, has said that its US customers want it to it to have US fabs. It’s been reported, by Reuters and others, that it could even contract some DRAM manufacturing to Intel in the US. SK Hynix has been making enormous profits from its HBM and DRAM chips and is committed to building out its fab capacity for these chips, and also NAND, as the enduring AI processing boom continues. There is an industry-wide, persistent undersupply of all three chip types, and Chey Tae-won has said it’s set to continue to 2030, when supply and demand could get back to being balanced. Setting up a US fab for Solidigm would enable it to use the latest technology, denied to its Dalian facility. A downside consideration is that US-based chip manufacturing is more expensive than having fabs in Korea and China. However, it would score brownie points with the US government and, by being at semi-arms length from SK Hynix itself, potentially avoid Korean government concerns about SK Hynix weakening its base in Korea. This would be helped by NAND being less critical to AI processing than HBM and DRAM. And, as we noted above, a US Solidigm IPO could provide cash for the construction. SK Hynix AI Co becomes SK Hynix Ventures SK Hynix launched its corporate venture capital (CVC) brand, SK Hynix Ventures, aimed at expanding strategic partnerships within the global AI ecosystem and securing future innovative technologies. It held an inaugural “SK Hynix Ventures Day” in Silicon Valley for VCs and startup reps, and said its focus would be on AI computing, data center infrastructure, system software and optical interconnect technologies. In March Solidigm entered the AI computer vision market. The forthcoming US operation was previously referred to as AI Co and would own the US Solidigm business. This builds on SK Hynix’ existing corporate ventures unit. SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung said: "Competitiveness in the AI era stems not just from rapidly securing innovative technologies, but from ecosystem capabilities where customers, partners, and startups create new value together. Through SK Hynix Ventures, we will support the growth of promising companies and grow into a global partner that jointly designs the future of AI infrastructure based on strategic investments and technological cooperation."
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