“Most of the HBMs to be produced this year and next year are also sold out”

On the 2nd, SK Hynix held a press conference with domestic and foreign media on the topic of ‘SK Hynix’s Vision and Strategy in the AI Era’ at its headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, and announced its investment plans for AI memory technology and market status, as well as future major production bases such as Cheongju, Yongin, and the US.

The event, held three years ahead of the completion of the first fab in the Yongin Cluster (May 2027), was attended by key executives including CEO Kwak No-jeong, President Kim Joo-sun (in charge of AI Infra), Vice President Kim Jong-hwan (in charge of DRAM Development), Vice President Ahn Hyeon (in charge of NS Committee), Vice President Kim Young-sik (in charge of Manufacturing/Technology), Vice President Choi Woo-jin (in charge of P&T), Vice President Ryu Byeong-hun (in charge of Future Strategy), and Vice President Kim Woo-hyun (CFO).

President Kwak No-jeong said, “In terms of production, our HBM is already sold out this year, and it is almost sold out next year as well.” He added, “In terms of HBM technology, in order to further solidify our market leadership, we are providing samples of the world’s highest-performance HBM3E 12-layer product in May and preparing for mass production in the third quarter.”

Next, President Kim Joo-sun (in charge of AI Infra) talked about the development of next-generation products, including HBM4, 4E, LPDDR6, 300TB SSD, as well as CXL pooled memory (Po).It was reported that they are preparing innovative memories such as OLED Memory (OLED Memory) solutions and PIM (Processing-In-Memory).

Vice President Choi Woo-jin (in charge of P&T) stated, “One of the core HBM packaging technologies that we possess is MR-MUF technology,” and “There is an opinion that MR-MUF technology may show limitations in high stack, but in reality, that is not the case, and we are already mass-producing HBM3 12Hi products with Adv. MR-MUF technology.”

Here, it was mentioned that “the company plans to implement a 16-layer product by applying advanced MR-MUF to HBM4, and is also proactively reviewing hybrid bonding technology.”

In addition, regarding investment in the United States, it was decided to build an advanced packaging production base for AI memory in West Lafayette, Indiana, and it was reported that mass production of next-generation HBM and other AI memory products is expected to begin in the second half of 2028.

Vice President Kim Young-sik (in charge of manufacturing technology) announced that the company plans to build a double-layer fab with a total floor area of 63,000 pyeong for the Cheongju M15x, which will be equipped with a batch production process for HBM including EUV, and that after completion in November next year, it plans to begin full-scale mass production in the third quarter of 2026.

In addition, regarding the Yongin cluster, he mentioned that four fabs will be built here sequentially, with the construction of the first fab scheduled to begin in March 2025 and be completed in May 2027.