Foundry Strengthening Move?… SK Hynix System IC Expands Footprint in Asia

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] SK Hynix has announced plans to expand its foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) business, and its foundry subsidiary SK Hynix System IC is extending its presence in Asia.

According to industry sources on the 4th, SK Hynix completed the establishment procedures for its subsidiaries Sky High Memory China and Sky High Memory Japan at the end of April. These companies, which were registered in March and May of last year respectively, completed all procedures by paying capital in April and will be responsible for semiconductor sales within China and Japan.

Sky High Memory was established in Hong Kong in 2019 as a joint venture between SK Hynix System IC and the US semiconductor company Cypress. Its main business is manufacturing and distributing premium-grade single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash solutions. Since the foundry business secures customers and operates on a made-to-order basis, SK Hynix System IC has focused on customer acquisition by partnering with Cypress, which has strengths in design. The cooperation, which was based in Hong Kong, is expected to expand to other Asian countries such as China and Japan, providing opportunities to increase sales of SLC NAND-related product lines.

Strengthening cooperation with Cypress, which produces a variety of high value-added products, is expected to help secure growth momentum for SK Hynix System IC’s business. Cypress is a semiconductor company known for its strengths in manufacturing microcontroller units (MCUs), image sensors, and analog ICs. After establishing the joint venture with SK Hynix System IC in 2019, Cypress was acquired by Infineon, which helped elevate Infineon into the ranks of the world’s top 10 semiconductor manufacturers. Recently, Cypress has been manufacturing and producing MCUs and flash memory used in autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT).

SK Hynix System IC, which was spun off from SK Hynix’s foundry division in July 2017, has been rapidly expanding its business. Since December last year, it has started operations at its Wuxi plant in China, and it plans to relocate the 8-inch foundry equipment from its M8 plant in Cheongju, Chungbuk to China, with completion expected early next year. The spin-off and relocation are being carried out to sustain growth in the foundry business and to target the Chinese fabless market. SK Hynix System IC, which posted a net loss of 7.7 billion KRW in its first year, surpassed 700 billion KRW in sales for the first time last year after starting operations at the Wuxi plant, achieving nearly 100 billion KRW in net profit.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.