SK Hynix will make investments an astronomical sum totaling 600 trillion received in constructing the Yongin semiconductor cluster. Initially, SK Hynix deliberate to take a position 30 trillion received per fab, for a complete of 120 trillion received throughout 4 fabs. Nonetheless, calculations have fully modified just lately. The primary fab, which broke floor in February this 12 months and is scheduled for completion in Could 2027, alone is estimated to require roughly 120 trillion received funding. The primary fab funding alone matches the dimensions of the unique complete price range. The sharp enhance in funding outcomes from fab growth mixed with exterior variables.
As Yongin Particular Metropolis raised the economic advanced ground space ratio from the present 350% to 490%, clear room space expanded by over 50%. With the bigger area, prices for costly tools similar to excessive ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools and different amenities to fill the inside have snowballed.
Time is the difficulty. The Yongin cluster is a long-term undertaking focusing on completion in 2050. Business analysts count on that contemplating future inflation charges and alternate charge volatility, building prices for the second, third, and fourth fabs will sequentially enhance, with the ultimate fourth fab building prices exceeding at the least 150 trillion received. Tools costs proceed rising attributable to more and more subtle course of applied sciences. The “600 trillion received funding” that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won just lately talked about to President Lee Jae Myung is analyzed to be a practical determine, reflecting all long-term value will increase.
SK Hynix maintains that regardless of the big value burden, it can not delay funding. It is because capability growth is pressing to keep away from shedding dominance within the synthetic intelligence (AI) semiconductor market. As of 2025, SK Hynix’s month-to-month DRAM manufacturing is 450,000 12-inch wafers, which is 70% of Samsung Electronics’ 650,000 wafers.
To slender the hole, SK Hynix plans to advance the operation timeline of Cheongju M15X and the Yongin cluster as a lot as potential. When the Cheongju M15X fab begins operation early subsequent 12 months and processes stabilize, DRAM manufacturing is predicted to extend by 50,000 items per 30 days by the tip of subsequent 12 months. After the primary fab of the Yongin semiconductor cluster is accomplished in mid-2027, tools set up and full operation by 2030 are anticipated so as to add 200,000 items per 30 days. By 2030, a month-to-month manufacturing system of 700,000 items primarily based on DRAM will probably be established.
The second, third, and fourth fabs of the Yongin semiconductor cluster will probably be sequentially constructed by 2050 in accordance with future semiconductor demand. An business official defined, “Solely the primary fab has a confirmed building schedule for the Yongin semiconductor cluster,” including, “If the reminiscence tremendous cycle is extended, there’s a risk of early building of the second fab earlier than the primary fab reaches full operation.”
