Shares Drop as Chipmaker Bets 54 Trillion Won on HBM and NAND Growth

TLDR

• SK hynix shares dropped 5.84% to $135.15 after approving 54 trillion won in new fabs.
• Yongin Y2 will expand HBM and DRAM capacity with production targeted for 2029.
• Cheongju M17 will add NAND capacity as enterprise SSD demand continues to accelerate.
• SK hynix sees DRAM and NAND demand growing 19% annually through the year 2030.
• New fabs support AI memory growth while expanding long-term production capacity.

SK hynix (SKHY) shares fell 5.84% to $135.15 after the chipmaker approved a major expansion of South Korean memory production capacity. The company committed about 54 trillion won to new Yongin and Cheongju fabs designed for rising AI-related memory demand. The projects will expand HBM, advanced DRAM, and NAND capacity while strengthening SK hynix’s long-term domestic production network nationwide.

SK hynix Inc., SKHY

SK hynix Expands HBM and DRAM Capacity in Yongin

SK hynix approved 35.2 trillion won for Yongin Y2, the second of four planned fabs within the large semiconductor cluster. The investment forms part of a broader plan covering 600 trillion won in Yongin and 100 trillion won in Cheongju. Construction should start in July 2027, with the first Y2 cleanroom scheduled to begin operations during June 2029 as planned.

The facility will cover about 1.13 million square meters and produce HBM alongside other next-generation DRAM memory products at scale. Meanwhile, work on Yongin Y1 continues toward its first cleanroom opening, which remains scheduled for February 2027 under current plans. SK hynix now targets completion of all four Yongin fabs by 2033, twelve years earlier than its original schedule.

Power and water infrastructure needed for Y1 and Y2 operations has reached about 99% completion across the Yongin cluster site. The company plans staged equipment installation, matching actual production capacity with customer demand while improving long-term capital efficiency. Omdia expects DRAM and NAND demand to record 19% annual growth through 2030, supporting SK hynix’s broader expansion strategy.

Cheongju M17 Adds NAND Capacity as SKHY Stock Falls

SK hynix also approved 19.1 trillion won for Cheongju M17, targeting growing NAND and enterprise SSD market demand. The company selected Cheongju because established power, water, and production infrastructure should support a faster overall construction schedule. The campus already houses M11, M12, and M15 fabs, allowing M17 to connect directly with existing memory production operations.

M17 will cover about 680,000 square meters overall, with construction scheduled to begin during February 2027. SK hynix expects its first cleanroom to open in December 2028, while planned investment continues through April 2031. Enterprise SSD demand continues rising as AI services require greater storage capacity for expanding workloads and complex inference systems.

Key-value cache storage could create further NAND demand by reducing repeated calculations during AI inference and supporting larger AI models. SKHY stock still fell 5.84% to $135.15, retreating sharply from earlier trading levels near $144 during the session. The investment now places execution, demand timing, and capital efficiency at the center of SK hynix’s next major expansion phase.