SK Hynix Acquires Kiphoundry... "Foundry Production Capacity Doubles" (Update)

Acquisition of 8,296 Shares Worth 575.8 Billion KRW... Regaining 100% Stake
Decision to Reclaim After 17 Years Since 2004 Sale

SK Hynix Headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] SK Hynix is acquiring K-Foundry, an 8-inch foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) company.

On the 29th, SK Hynix announced that it will acquire 8,296 shares of K-Foundry for 575.8 billion KRW. After the acquisition, SK Hynix's stake in K-Foundry will be 100%.

SK Hynix stated that the purpose of this stock acquisition is to expand 8-inch foundry production capacity and secure K-Foundry's semiconductor production facilities and related patents. This marks the return of the foundry facilities 17 years after SK Hynix separated its non-memory business during restructuring amid management difficulties in 2004, established MagnaChip Semiconductor, and sold the foundry facilities separately to an overseas private equity fund.

An SK Hynix official said, "The acquisition of K-Foundry is expected to contribute to doubling SK Hynix's foundry production capacity," adding, "We will strengthen 8-inch foundry capabilities to enhance system semiconductor competitiveness, stabilize the global semiconductor supply chain, and support the domestic fabless semiconductor ecosystem."

Headquartered in Cheongju, K-Foundry owns semiconductor production facilities based on 8-inch wafers suitable for small-volume, multi-product production. The company contract manufactures non-memory semiconductors such as power management integrated circuits (PMIC), display driver ICs (DDI), and microcontroller units (MCU).

SK Hynix currently owns an 8-inch foundry subsidiary, SK Hynix System IC. The wafer processing capacity of System IC is known to be similar in scale to K-Foundry, with which the acquisition contract was signed. Based on this, the company expects the foundry production capacity to approximately double through this acquisition.

Until now, SK Hynix reviewed several options to expand foundry production capacity and decided to acquire K-Foundry. Earlier, SK Hynix Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho announced at the 'K-Semiconductor Strategy Report Conference' in May, "We will double the 8-inch foundry production capacity."

SK Hynix plans to complete the acquisition of K-Foundry after obtaining regulatory approvals from major countries.

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