SK Hynix: Plans to Double Memory Production Capacity in Five Years, Shortages to Continue Until 2030

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SK Hynix announced a large-scale expansion plan, aiming to double wafer production capacity in the next five years to address the continued shortage of memory chips caused by global artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won told reporters at the Computex conference in Taipei on Tuesday that the global memory chip supply gap may persist until 2030, and the company is increasing capital expenditure to bridge the supply-demand imbalance, though he did not disclose specific investment figures. This statement is his latest confirmation, following his warning in March this year that the global wafer shortage may continue beyond 2030.

This expansion plan has a significant impact on the market. Last week, SK Hynix’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, joining Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology in the trillion-dollar club, with the three companies jointly dominating the global memory market. Investors and analysts generally expect the memory shortage to continue until 2027, which gives memory chip manufacturers rare pricing power over the world’s largest technology companies.

AI Demand Reshapes Traditional Cyclical Industry

Memory chips are the core components for storing and transmitting large amounts of data required by AI services and have become one of the primary bottlenecks in AI development. The trillion-dollar expected investment in data center construction by hyperscale cloud service providers like Meta Platforms has directly propelled historic market cap breakthroughs for SK Hynix and Micron.

Goldman Sachs raised its 2028 operating profit forecasts for SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics by 24% and 23.3% respectively, to 454 trillion Korean won (about $299.6 billion) and 610 trillion Korean won, citing sustained demand driven by AI. Some analysts believe the AI boom is reshaping the traditionally highly cyclical memory sector.

SK Hynix Leads the HBM Market, Seeks Deeper Collaboration

In the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market—the key segment for AI chips—SK Hynix currently holds a dominant position. According to Counterpoint Research, in the first quarter of this year, SK Hynix’s global share in the HBM market reached 58%, while Samsung and Micron each held 21%.

Chey Tae-won expressed hope that SK Hynix can become the main HBM supplier for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin system. He also pointed out that the company needs to expand more partnership relationships, not limited to TSMC, the world’s largest wafer foundry. The Computex conference gathered top executives from leading global technology companies including Nvidia, and Chey’s remarks further highlighted the pursuit of deeper collaboration with partners.

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