SK hynix Breaks Ground on Cheongju Advanced Packaging Plant After W19 Trillion Investment, Positioning It as a Core AI Memory Hub

[The Financial News] SK hynix Inc. has broken ground on its advanced packaging fab (P&T7) in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, moving ahead with a 19 trillion won investment project. The packaging fab is seen as a strategy to respond to surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory while maintaining its technology lead through a production base that concentrates advanced process technologies.
SK hynix Inc. said on the 22nd that it held the groundbreaking ceremony for the advanced packaging package and test (P&T) 7 plant, attended by 125 employees including Lee Byung-gi, head of mass production, 40 family members of staff, and 20 employees from SK ecoplant, which is handling construction.
P&T7, SK hynix Inc.'s seventh package and test fab, is a dedicated advanced packaging plant essential for manufacturing AI memory, including High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). The company plans to invest 19 trillion won to build the facility on about 230,000 square meters in the Cheongju Technopolis Industrial Complex. The site will include three floors of wafer-level packaging (WLP) lines covering about 60,000 square meters and seven floors of wafer testing (WT) lines covering about 90,000 square meters. In total, the cleanroom area alone will reach about 150,000 square meters.
Construction will proceed with the goal of completing the WT lines in October 2027 and the WLP lines by February 2028, in sequence after the groundbreaking.
As key technologies that go beyond the limits of miniaturization, such as WLP, continue to emerge, back-end processes have moved beyond their traditional role of ensuring product reliability and completing packaging. They are now becoming a critical factor in determining the performance of AI semiconductors.
Lee Byung-gi, head of mass production at SK hynix Inc., said at the event, "P&T7 is a key production base that will complete SK hynix's leadership in AI memory." He added, "We will concentrate our manufacturing capabilities so that the advanced products made here can become the standard for global AI infrastructure. At the same time, we will work closely with the local community to build a successful business model that achieves both stronger national industrial competitiveness and mutual growth with the region."
SK hynix Inc. said it chose Cheongju as the final site after carefully considering the importance of balanced regional growth and the impact the project would have on the broader industrial ecosystem from the planning stage of P&T7.
The company expects the project to generate significant positive spillover effects for the local community. P&T7 will be SK hynix Inc.'s fifth production facility in Cheongju, following M11, M12 fabrication plant, M15 fabrication plant, and M15X fab. SK hynix Inc. said, "Once the plant is completed and begins to create synergies with nearby production bases, Cheongju will firmly establish itself as SK hynix's new core AI memory hub."
As the number of partner companies in the Cheongju area grows, SK hynix Inc. plans to further expand its existing shared growth programs, including technology development, management consulting, and financial support. Through this, the company aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the local industrial ecosystem and reinforce a virtuous cycle in which improved partner technology is immediately reflected in SK hynix's product competitiveness.
soup@fnnews.com Im Su-bin Reporter