Using Controllers from FADU
SK Hynix has signed a contract to supply non-volatile memory express (NVMe) solid state drives (SSDs) to Meta (formerly known as Facebook), the largest social media company in the United States.
The exact contract value is unknown, but it is estimated at hundreds of billions of won.
This is the first time that SK Hynix supplies its NVMe SSDs to Meta. As Meta prepares for the metaverse business, its demand for SSDs for cloud has increased.
Behind SK Hynix's signing of this contact is FADU, a Korean fabless startup specializing in semiconductor design. FADU is a company that develops controllers, one of the key semiconductors for SSDs. SK Hynix used FADU's controllers for its NVMe SSDs to be supplied to Meta. In Korea, a handful of companies, including Samsung Electronics, have the ability to independently design SSD controllers.
Technology fees that SK Hynix pays to FADU reportedly stands at about 80 billion won. This controller makes up about 5 percent of the SSD product cost. Based on this, the contract between SK Hynix and Meta is expected to reach hundreds of billions of won. FADU was founded by researchers from Seoul National University’s Memory and Storage Structure Lab in 2015.