HANMI Semiconductor will make a large new investment to preemptively respond to a global shortage in AI Semiconductor equipment supply. HANMI Semiconductor said on the 18th that it will purchase from Mercury a factory with a land area of 6,230 pyeong inside the Juan National Industrial Complex in Incheon and establish it as Plant 8. This is the largest area among the factories HANMI Semiconductor owns.
A total of 130 billion won, including a 56 billion won purchase price, will be invested in Plant 8, which will begin mass production in the second quarter of 2027 after remodeling. Considering that it takes a long time to build a new plant, the company shortened the timeline for building production infrastructure by purchasing an existing plant. Plant 8 will produce HBM (high bandwidth memory) TC bonders and hybrid bonders, 2.5D packaging equipment for AI Semiconductor, and BOC·COB equipment.
When the hybrid bonder factory (Plant 7), scheduled for completion in the first half of 2027, and Plant 8 are both operational, HANMI Semiconductor's total production line will expand to 34,318 pyeong, giving it the world's largest production facilities for HBM TC bonders and hybrid bonders. This is a large additional investment made about one year after investing 100 billion won in Plant 7 last year.
With a recent surge in demand for AI Semiconductor, manufacturing facility investments by global semiconductor corporations are expanding, lengthening lead times for HBM and AI system semiconductor packaging equipment and keeping supply from meeting demand. Micron is expanding HBM production by acquiring fabs from Taiwan's AUO and PSMC, and in July raised its U.S. investment from $200 billion to $250 billion. TSMC will add 25 fabs in Taiwan over the next five years and increase its Arizona investment to $265 billion.
The "Terafab" that Elon Musk is building in Austin, Texas, will receive $119 billion—the largest ever for a single manufacturing facility—and is slated to begin operations in 2028, while Intel also raised this year's capital expenditures to $17 billion–$18 billion. Amkor Technology and SK hynix are also expanding investments in advanced packaging facilities in Arizona and Indiana, respectively.
In a report released in July, the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) projected that global semiconductor equipment sales in 2026 will rise 23.2% from a year earlier to $165.9 billion, and grow to $201.2 billion in 2027 and $229.5 billion in 2028.
A HANMI Semiconductor official said, "The capability to supply semiconductor equipment on time in line with customers' manufacturing facility investment plans is the core competitiveness of equipment corporations," adding, "Through investments in Plant 7 and the new Plant 8, we will preemptively secure production capacity (CAPA) and respond to customer demand in a stable manner."