SK Hynix to Produce HBM in US Amid Mounting Investment Pressure

[Anchor]

SK Hynix has broken ground on a semiconductor production plant in the United States. As investment pressure from the Trump administration drives South Korean companies to invest in the U.S., attention is focused on whether this move will serve as a self-defense measure to fend off potential "Trump tariffs."

Reporter Kwon Ran has the details.

[Reporter]

Massive concrete structures have risen on a site spanning one-eighth the size of Yeouido.

This is the construction site for SK Hynix's first U.S. plant, located in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The facility will handle advanced packaging and backend processes, which stack or bundle multiple chips to enhance semiconductor performance.

The company aims to begin mass-producing hundreds of thousands of units of HBM4E, the 7th-generation advanced memory, annually starting in the second half of 2029.

Major customers are expected to include U.S. big tech companies, led by Nvidia.

This aligns closely with President Trump's policy objective of securing supply chain dominance through domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

[Kwak Noh-jung / President and CEO of SK Hynix: This will strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and contribute to both national and economic security.]

Samsung Electronics is also building contract semiconductor manufacturing plants in Taylor, following its existing facility in Austin, Texas.

The successive U.S. investments by South Korean companies are closely tied to pressure from the Trump administration.

Politico, a U.S. political journalism publication, recently reported that the Trump administration is considering expanding the application of semiconductor tariffs beyond chips to include finished goods containing semiconductors, such as laptops and data center servers.

While South Korea's exported semiconductors currently face no tariffs, possibilities have been raised that these benefits could be altered based on investments within the U.S.

[Howard Lutnick / U.S. Secretary of Commerce (in an interview with U.S. Fox Business last August): President Trump's goal is to leverage our top technology to have semiconductors produced in the United States so that we can best control them.]

SK Hynix has announced plans to invest an additional 45 billion dollars or more in the U.S. by 2030, while Samsung plans to invest a total of 37 billion dollars in constructing its Taylor plant. Attention is focused on whether these investments can act as a shield to avoid Trump's semiconductor tariffs.

(Video by Kim Ho-jin | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung and Park Hye-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.