SK hynix President and CEO Kwak Noh-jung stated that the company is carefully considering the selection of a site for an advanced packaging facility in the United States, targeting all states.
On Feb. 19, CEO Kwak made these remarks during a meeting with the press following the regular meeting of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, which took place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Seoul Pangyo in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.
Regarding reports that SK hynix has selected Indiana as the site for its packaging factory in the United States, CEO Kwak stated, “We cannot confirm this, and all states in the U.S. are potential candidates,” and added, “We will do our best.”
Earlier, on Feb. 1, the UK’s Financial Times (FT) reported, citing multiple sources, that SK hynix had selected Indiana as the site for its semiconductor packaging factory. The facility is said to specialize in DRAM stacking for high bandwidth memory (HBM) to be used in NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPUs).
Regarding recent foreign media reports hinting at the resumption of merger discussions between Japan’s NAND flash production company Kioxia and U.S.-based Western Digital, CEO Kwak stated that he does not agree with the reports. Last year, the two companies attempted a merger, but it was thwarted by opposition from SK Hynix.
He mentioned, “We are always open to collaboration,” adding, “If there are good ways to cooperate for mutual benefit between us and Kioxia, we can consider them at any time.”
For Kioxia and Western Digital to merge, SK hynix, which has made indirect investment in Kioxia, needs to agree with it. In 2018, SK Hynix secured approximately 15 percent ownership in Kioxia Holdings by investing around 4 trillion won (US$3 billion) through a special purpose company led by Bain Capital, which was a joint venture between South Korea, the United States, and Japan.
CEO Kwak also mentioned that SK hynix is also preparing to introduce the latest lithography equipment, “High Numerical Aperture (NA) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV),” from ASML in the Netherlands for semiconductor ultrafine processes.
In response to questions about the timing of implementation, CEO Kwak stated, “Just as we introduced EUV equipment at the appropriate time when needed, we are preparing to bring in High NA equipment when needed.” He further added, “Contracts with ASML follow the usual process.”