South Korea’s SK Hynix said on Tuesday it will invest 19 trillion won (about $13 billion) to build a new advanced packaging facility, ramping up production capacity as global demand for memory chips accelerates amid the artificial intelligence boom.
The new plant will be located in Cheongju, expanding the company’s existing manufacturing footprint in the city. Construction is scheduled to begin in April, with completion targeted by the end of 2027, the company said in a statement.
The facility will focus on advanced packaging technology, which combines multiple memory chips into a single, high-density unit to improve performance and energy efficiency while reducing overall size, a critical requirement for AI-driven computing.
SK Hynix is one of the world’s largest memory chip manufacturers and a market leader in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component used in AI processors, including those designed by Nvidia.
The investment underscores the company’s push to meet surging demand for HBM as competition intensifies in the global AI race. That demand has driven prices higher and made advanced memory one of the most profitable segments of the semiconductor industry.
Rival Samsung Electronics has also announced plans in recent months to significantly expand its own HBM production capacity.
According to industry projections cited by SK Hynix, the global HBM market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33 percent between 2025 and 2030, reflecting sustained demand from data centres, AI accelerators and high-performance computing.
However, producing HBM is far more complex than manufacturing conventional memory used in consumer electronics. As chipmakers redirect capacity toward AI-focused products, supplies of standard memory have tightened, contributing to price increases across the broader electronics supply chain.
Taipei-based research firm TrendForce said last week it expects average prices for dynamic random access memory (DRAM), including HBM, to rise by 50 to 55 percent this quarter compared with the final quarter of 2025.
While higher memory prices have created cost pressures for electronics manufacturers, they have significantly boosted earnings for memory producers. Samsung Electronics said last week it expects its operating profit for the December quarter to nearly triple from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix is weighing a potential listing in the United States following a strong 2025 performance for its shares in South Korea. The stock is up about 12 percent so far this year, although it fell roughly 2.5 percent in Tuesday trading.
