KB News Desk
SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung said Thursday the company remained open to further US semiconductor investment, while forecasting a global memory chip shortage through the end of 2030.
“We are always open (for more investment), but nothing has been decided,” Kwak told reporters Thursday after a groundbreaking ceremony for the company’s advanced packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Kwak said SK hynix was looking globally for potential sites that could support its development and testing needs, citing power, water and government incentives among key considerations.
“If there is a location that can provide sufficient infrastructure and resources, we are open to anywhere,” he said, adding that he hoped the company could bring “more good news” for the US AI industry in the future.
Kwak said SK hynix’s investment plans had grown modestly from its initial agreement with the US government, primarily because demand has strengthened.
The rise of AI is reshaping the memory chip business from one centered on standardized products to one increasingly built around partially or fully customized chips, according to Kwak. The shift is expected to make the industry’s traditional boom-and-bust cycles less severe.
“The memory chip industry underwent multiple downturns over the past decades, when the memory business was based 100 percent on commodity chips,” Kwak said.
“Now, our products are either partly customized or completely customized,” Kwak said, adding that closer coordination with customers would give chipmakers greater visibility into future demand.
SK hynix saw no clear sign of a downturn in the coming years, Kwak said. Even if one were to emerge, he expected demand to ease gradually rather than collapse as it has in past memory cycles.
“After 2030, we expect supply-demand to become more balanced, with the overall AI industry continuing to grow.”
SK hynix is also looking beyond memory as AI increasingly blurs the boundaries between memory, logic and advanced packaging. The CEO pointed to the latest HBM4 as an early example, with logic circuitry incorporated into its base die.
Kwak also said the company’s newly established AI Co. would serve as an investment vehicle for startups and companies that could support its next businesses, including those that offer coordination with its existing memory operations.
On Solidigm, SK hynix’s NAND subsidiary, Kwak said a potential US initial public offering remained under review. “We have not decided to withdraw the plan,” he said.
Kwak also said no decision had been made on SK hynix’s stake in Japan’s Kioxia, but indicated the company is exploring ways to deepen its role in Japan’s chip industry.
SK hynix became the largest shareholder in the Japanese NAND flash maker earlier in August after Toshiba reduced its stake through a series of market sales, pushing an SK hynix-backed investment vehicle into the top spot.
“Just as we want to contribute to the AI industry in the US, we also want to contribute to Japan’s semiconductor industry,” he said. “We are carefully looking at how we can grow the market together.
