SK Hynix Plans to Build New NAND Fab in Cheongju

According to a report by Pulse, SK Hynix is actively preparing a new round of domestic investment plans to meet the surging demand for chips in the AI era. The South Korean government is expected to officially unveil the latest investment blueprints of South Korean companies in the central and southeastern regions at a government-business meeting scheduled for June 29.

A major focus of this investment plan is SK Hynix's proposal to build a new NAND flash wafer fab in Cheongju, South Korea. If the plan is ultimately finalized, it will mark SK Hynix's first major expansion of NAND capacity at the Cheongju site since the completion of the M15 fab in 2018.

In the past, due to relatively weak profitability in the NAND Flash business, South Korean memory manufacturers were generally cautious about expanding NAND capacity. However, as the global supply of NAND Flash becomes increasingly tight, manufacturers are re-evaluating the investment value in this sector. SK Hynix's strong performance in the NAND market also provides support for this expansion: through the acquisition of Intel's NAND business (now operating under the name Solidigm), SK Hynix has firmly established itself as the world's second-largest NAND Flash supplier. According to data from CFM, in the first quarter of 2026, Samsung held a 29.7% share of the global NAND flash market, while SK Hynix's market share stood at 17.6%.