SK hynix speeds up Cheongju advanced packaging plant to meet AI memory demand

[Financial News] SK hynix will move up the investment schedule for its new packaging fab, P&T7, to respond to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory.
The company announced on the 22nd that its board had approved facility investment of 709.31 billion won for the construction of P&T7 in Cheongju.
The investment period runs from Nov. 26, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2032. The amount equals 5.88% of the company's equity capital.
SK hynix said the purpose of the investment is to "secure a production base in Cheongju to respond to global AI memory demand." It added that "this disclosure was made after a renewed board resolution because the investment schedule was moved up and the amount approved by the board increased," and explained that "there has been no change to the previously announced total investment of 1.9 trillion won for P&T7."
The increase reflects the need to handle higher production and shorten the cleanroom opening schedule. While the total investment has not changed, the company is believed to have brought forward the P&T7 schedule to secure advanced packaging capacity earlier as demand for AI memory, including High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), rises rapidly.
P&T7, SK hynix's seventh package-and-test fab, is a dedicated advanced packaging plant essential for manufacturing AI memory such as HBM. It will be built on a site of about 230,000 square meters in the Cheongju Technopolis Industrial Complex at a cost of 1.9 trillion won. The project will include about 60,000 square meters across three floors of wafer-level packaging lines and about 90,000 square meters across seven floors of wafer testing lines. Combined, the cleanroom area alone will reach about 150,000 square meters.
Earlier this month, Kwak Noh-jung, president of SK hynix, said at the "National Report Meeting on the Vision for Advanced Industry Development in the Chungcheong Region," one of the three major mega-projects for a great leap forward in South Korea, held in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, that "P&T7 will be completed by the end of next year and serve as an advanced packaging hub, while the new M17 fab will break ground next year and aim to begin operations in the first half of 2029."

[email protected] Lim Su-bin Reporter