SK hynix plans $14.6 billion on new chip fab in South Korea to meet 'soaring demand' of HBM

SK hynix has pledged another 20 trillion won (around $14.6 billion USD or so) in preemptively responding to "soaring demand" for HBM memory, which is a key part of AI GPUs.

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The South Korean memory giant plans to complete the construction of its new fab in November 2025. Geared up and ready for early mass production, the fab will make major investments in enhancing AI memory market leadership and contributing to the domestic economy in South Korea.

SK hynix's board of directors has approved the plan, which will see the company building the new M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, for a new DRAM production base, with an investment of around 5.3 trillion won (around $3.9 billion USD or so) for fab construction.

Kwak Noh-Jung, President and CEO of SK hynix, said: "With transformation into a key facility that supplies AI memories to the world, M15X will play a pivotal role as stepping stone connecting the company's present and future. We are confident that this investment will be a giant leap that goes beyond the private sector for contribution to the future of the broader domestic economy".

SK hynix recently teamed with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) on next-gen HBM4 memory and next-gen packaging technology. We can expect next-gen HBM4 memory to show itself off sometime in 2026, ready for truly future-gen AI GPUs... Vera Rubin from NVIDIA, the GPU successor to the still-not-released Blackwell GPU architecture.

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Not only that, but SK hynix has planned an absolutely mammoth $90 billion investment into the world's largest mega fab complex in South Korea, which will be fully complete in 2046. The new HBM and advanced packaging fabs will be found at this complex, while SK hynix has become the second-largest company in South Korea in market value, second only to SK competitor Samsung.