U.S. Commerce Secretary Urges Samsung and SK Hynix to Expand U.S. Production

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has urged Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to expand their memory semiconductor production within the United States.

Bloomberg reported that Secretary Lutnick made these remarks on July 9 (local time) at a ceremony marking the concrete pouring for a new fabrication plant (fab) being built by Micron, a competitor to Samsung and SK Hynix, in the town of Clay, New York.

While Lutnick stated that he is in discussions with the two Korean memory manufacturers regarding the matter, he did not disclose specific details.

He acknowledged that Micron might not be pleased with the expansion of Korean memory chipmakers in the U.S., but noted, "I want to bring their competitors, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, to the U.S. to build production facilities." He added, "Since Micron is leading the way, their competitors will feel jealous and will eventually have no choice but to follow."

"We want to protect our great American companies and those who invest in our intellectual property," he continued. "It is my view that I want Micron to build their plant as fast as they can."

He also stated, "President Trump has made it clear that the U.S. is where you should be doing business, and the world is responding quickly to that. The Trump economic model clearly shows that there has never been a better time to invest in the U.S. than now."

Lutnick avoided questions regarding whether the U.S. would approve Apple's move to add Chinese suppliers, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), to its supply chain in response to surging semiconductor prices.

Micron announced on this day that it would increase its investment in U.S. fabs and technology to more than 250 billion dollars (approximately 375 trillion won) by 2035 to meet the explosive demand for memory in the artificial intelligence (AI) era.

This investment includes the costs for the New York fab as well as expansions in Idaho and Virginia.

Micron added that it had proceeded with the first concrete pouring for the New York fab more than a quarter ahead of schedule.

The company expects that such investments will support its goal of producing 40 percent of its DRAM in the U.S. and create more than 90,000 jobs across the country.

The Donald Trump administration has pledged to have 40 percent of the world's semiconductors produced in the U.S. by the end of its term, and Micron has previously announced a goal to produce 40 percent of its DRAM domestically in alignment with this vision.

In addition, Micron plans to invest up to 3 billion dollars (4.5 trillion won) to strengthen the semiconductor supply chain ecosystem within the U.S.

Of this amount, 500 million dollars will be used to support the expansion of the Texas wafer manufacturing facility of the Taiwanese company GlobalWafers, with a 10-year long-term supply contract also being signed.

CEO Sanjay Mehrotra emphasized, "As the U.S. celebrates its 250th anniversary, data and memory have become the cornerstone of the modern economy. To keep pace with this era, we are expanding our U.S. investment to over 250 billion dollars by 2035."

Micron had initially planned to invest 170 billion dollars in the U.S., but raised the figure to 200 billion dollars in June of last year—following the inauguration of the Trump administration—due to the surge in demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), and has now increased it by another 50 billion dollars.

This investment is interpreted as an effort to align with the Trump administration's policy stance aimed at reviving the U.S. semiconductor industry.

In particular, Micron's announcement of the investment just one day before SK Hynix's scheduled Nasdaq ADR listing on July 10 is also seen as a move to keep its competitors in the memory sector, including HBM, in check.

SK Hynix plans to raise approximately 26.5 billion dollars (about 40 trillion won) through this listing.

Micron's stock price surged more than 9 percent during the day but gave back some gains in the afternoon, closing the regular session at 991.64 dollars, up 4.5 percent from the previous day's closing price.

Other semiconductor-related stocks, including Applied Materials, KLA, Lam Research, and ARM, also saw gains of 3 to 9 percent.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.