Illustration of the SK Hynix logo displayed on a mobile phone screen.
Jakub Porzycki | Null Photo | Getty Images
Korean memory giant SK Hynix announced Wednesday that it will invest at least $10 billion to acquire a new AI growth engine and form a new company in the U.S. focused on artificial intelligence solutions.
The new U.S. entity, tentatively named AI Company or AI Co., will serve as a hub for SK Group’s AI strategy and work to accelerate the technology in global markets, the company said.
SK Hynix has emerged as a major player in AI in recent years due to its leadership in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. Nvidia.
The company’s U.S. expansion comes as other tech giants ramp up investments in AI and demand for memory chips soars.
SK Hynix announced that it will reorganize its California-based subsidiary Solidigm, an enterprise solid state drive (SSD) manufacturer founded in 2021, to create a new “AI Company.”
Solidigm’s operations will then be transferred to a new legal entity called Solidigm Inc.
The planned investment in AI will be made on a capital call basis, and further strategic investments in US AI companies are also planned to enhance synergies across SK Group affiliates.
The announcement follows SK Hynix’s better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, also released on Wednesday, as profits were boosted by continued shortages across the memory supply chain that are pushing up prices.
To take advantage of this burgeoning demand for AI, SK Hynix is accelerating its investments, spending nearly $13 billion to build an advanced chip packaging factory in South Korea.
Plans for a new U.S.-based entity also align with the priorities of the Trump administration, which has threatened to impose tariffs on chipmakers unless they invest heavily in the United States.
SK Hynix is already in the process of building a $3.87 billion state-of-the-art chip packaging manufacturing and research and development facility in Indiana, as announced in 2024. The facility will produce high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI applications and is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.
US President Donald Trump has also been engaged in extensive tariff negotiations with South Korea in recent months. But the president on Tuesday suggested the trade tensions could ease, saying the United States would “work some solutions” with South Korea after recent tariff threats.
