SK Hynix's New York Factory Plans Stalled by Export License Denial

SK Hynix plans to raise funds for a new storage chip factory in New York by expanding production in China, but the necessary export license for U.S. equipment has not been approved, hindering its investment plans in the U.S. The company is applying for a U.S. export license to acquire equipment for its Dalian factory, believing that increasing the plant's output and developing more advanced NAND chip manufacturing technology will help maintain competitiveness and support its U.S. factory plans. SK Hynix's subsidiary Solidigm plans to invest approximately $45 billion in building two NAND flash memory factories in New York State, with long-term investments potentially reaching about $100 billion. Negotiations are ongoing, and the approval of the Dalian factory expansion plan is key to the New York factory project. Since the end of August, Solidigm executives have met with U.S. Department of Commerce officials nearly ten times, including meetings with Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Deputy Secretary Don Graves. Graves stated last week that the U.S. does not wish to allow more American chip manufacturing equipment to be sent to China for technology upgrades or capacity expansion. The Department of Commerce has not formally rejected the license application for exporting equipment to the existing idle cleanroom at the Dalian factory. Solidigm stated that it is exploring options for building NAND flash wafer fabs at potential global locations but has not made any decisions regarding specific action plans. On October 23, SK Hynix announced that Solidigm had considered an IPO to help fund the construction of U.S. production facilities but has paused its evaluation of listing options.

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