SK hynix to break ground on mega chip cluster next March

Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun, far right, gets briefed on SK hynix' chip cluster project in Yongin, Gyeonggi, on Thursday. [YONHAP]

SK hynix will break ground on its first chip fabrication plant in Yongin, Gyeonggi in March 2025 with hopes of completing construction by the second quarter of 2027.

This plant, part of the government-driven "mega chip cluster" project envisioned in the southern Gyeonggi area, will be committed to manufacturing dynamic random-access and NAND memory chips.

Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun visited the site Thursday and said the government will roll out full-fledged support to help Korea secure a leading position in the cutthroat chip industry.

"As speed is crucial in securing significant technical supremacy in semiconductors, government departments will join forces so that the cluster can be established in a timely manner," he said, adding that there will be support for advanced chip exports such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips this year so that Korean chipmakers achieve exports of $120 billion.

A portion of the cluster will be dedicated to small components and equipment companies in order to establish a stable chip manufacturing ecosystem. This project, committed with a total of 906 billion won ($683 million), will be used as a test bed to verify the small companies' technology so that the qualified ones can be incentivized by the government.

The Industry Ministry also said Thursday it will set up a dedicated department for the establishment of the cluster by the end of March. A task force team which oversees electricity provision within the cluster has already been formed.

The "mega chip cluster" project that was announced early this year will see Korean chipmakers invest a combined 622 trillion won to build the "world's largest semiconductor cluster" in the southern Gyeonggi area by 2047.

Samsung Electronics has pledged an investment of 360 trillion won to build six new fabrication plants in the chip cluster town of Namsa in Yongin dedicated to manufacturing logical processors. SK hynix has announced it will set up a total of four memory chip fabrication plants in the adjacent city of Wonsam by pouring more than 120 trillion won through 2046.

Samsung is investing an additional 120 trillion won to expand existing fabrication facilities at the industrial complex of Godeok in Pyeongtaek and another 20 trillion won for research and development in Suwon.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]