SK hynix is said to have brought in the first equipment to the Cheongju M15X fab (factory), which it is building as a DRAM production base including High Bandwidth Memory (HBM).
According to the industry on the 27th, SK hynix opened the first cleanroom of M15X being built in Cheongju and began bringing in equipment that day. M15X is an expanded production base of the existing M15 that SK hynix is building with an investment of more than 2 trillion won.
Earlier, SK hynix began foundation work such as building out infrastructure by assigning some DRAM personnel who had worked at the Icheon campus in Gyeonggi to the Cheongju campus since the end of last year. With equipment move-in starting that day, the company appears to be accelerating toward completion within the year as originally planned.
After its second-quarter earnings announcement, SK hynix said on a conference call, "M15X plans mass production centered on next-generation HBM products to meet customer demand, and we plan to gradually increase capacity in line with a situation next year where visibility is secured for the volumes all customers need." It added, "It is difficult to speak specifically about the use of M15X, but by the end of next year there will be no cases where we cannot supply HBM due to fab space constraints."
Based on the M15X equipment move-in, SK hynix is analyzed to tighten the reins on HBM mass production. SK hynix has already "sold out" this year's HBM volumes and is said to be the first among the three memory companies to finish preparations for mass production of HBM4 (6th generation) and is negotiating volumes with Nvidia.