Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, said he is considering building a new memory chip plant in Japan. He also raised the possibility of joint production with Kioxia, a Japanese NAND flash manufacturer in which SK hynix holds equity.

Chey said in an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun on the 2nd, "Kioxia is a company with many strengths," adding, "If SK hynix is included in Kioxia's future strategy, we are ready to become a partner at any time."

KORCHAM Chairman Chey Tae-won delivers opening remarks at the Korea-Japan Low Birthrate Response Exchange Committee held in Sendai, Japan, on the 30th. /Courtesy of Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry

While indicating they could cooperate in areas such as joint production, research and development, and sharing supply chains, he also said, "If we can no longer build any cooperative relationship, we will end our investment in Kioxia."

Kioxia was Toshiba's semiconductor institutional sector, but on the 8th the largest shareholder changed from Toshiba to "BCPE Pangaea Cayman 2," a special purpose company (SPC) operated by a U.S. investment fund.

SK hynix holds convertible bonds issued by the SPC. If SK hynix exercises all conversion rights on the convertible bonds, it is understood to be effectively able to seize control of the SPC's voting rights. In other words, it would create the structure SK hynix → BCPE Pangaea Cayman 2 → Kioxia.

Behind Chey's consideration of building an overseas plant is an explosion in demand for data center memory chips driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. He said, "Data center memory chips are short by 20%–30%."

Chey judged that Japan has an established production environment, with chipmaking equipment and material and component manufacturers clustered there. He said, "Japan is a very attractive candidate site even in terms of risk and culture," adding that multiple local governments have already made bids to attract the plant. No specific candidates were mentioned.

Regarding Chey's proposal, a Kioxia representative told the Asahi Shimbun, "We are cooperating with SK hynix on research and development of magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), and we are also one of the suppliers of DRAM, a type of memory chip," adding, "We will continue to maintain a good relationship going forward."

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