(Aug 8): South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc is considering options for its Chongqing, China-based facility, including bringing in an investor to help accelerate growth, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The company, a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia Corp, is speaking with prospective advisers to help review the business, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. A potential stake sale may value the facility at about US$3 billion (RM12.27 billion), the people said.
SK Hynix entered China more than 20 years ago, when it signed an agreement with the eastern city of Wuxi to build its first major overseas wafer manufacturing plant, according to its website. The Chongqing facility provides a large-scale semiconductor packaging and testing base, helping boost the company’s NAND flash back-end production to grow globally.
Suitors may include Chinese funds and industry players, the people said. SK Hynix may retain a minority stake in the asset, they added.
Deliberations are preliminary and may not lead to any transaction, the people said.
A representative for SK Hynix declined to comment.
Separately, the company on Friday said it plans a 54 trillion won (US$38 billion or RM160 billion) expansion of its chipmaking facilities in South Korea. It will build a new DRAM manufacturing facility in Yongin and a NAND fabrication plant in Cheongju. The move is in response to growing demand for memory in the AI era, it said.
In July, SK Hynix raised US$26.5 billion in its US listing — the biggest by a foreign company on American exchanges. The blockbuster share sale led the charge in a record month for equity capital markets activity from firms in the Asia Pacific.
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