SK Hynix bargains for chip equipment exports to its China facility in return for building a factory in US

SK Hynix seems browsing choppy U.S.-China chipmaking waters. The business’s flash memory system, Solidigm, is looking for U.S. approval to send out American chipmaking devices to its factory in Dalian, China, as a condition to continue constructing a semiconductor factory in the U.S., Reuters reportedmentioning confidential sources.

Solidigm has actually been supposedly chalking up strategies to construct a NAND flash memory chip factory in the U.S. and is thinking about upstate New York as a possible area for the center.

NAND flash chips Are mostly utilized in solid-state storage drives, which are utilized in whatever from laptop computers and mobile phones to AI information. The worldwide part lack, thanks to escalating need for AI information centers, has actually driven up costs for whatever that goes into information centers, consisting of high-speed RAM chips and SSDs. Research study company TrendForce anticipates NAND rates to increase 15% to 20% in the 4th quarter.

Reuters mentioned its sources as stating that Solidigm wishes to set up more chipmaking devices in extra area at SK Hynix’s Dalian factory in China to increase NAND chip production.

SK Hynix informed TechCrunch it is not looking for to broaden capability at its Dalian Mod B center, which was finished in 2023. The chip giant included that the devices setup is being performed in assessment with and under permission from the U.S. federal government.

Washington initially enforced sweeping limitations on innovative chips and chipmaking devices exports to China in October 2022, pointing out nationwide security issues, and even more tightened up the guidelines in 2023In September 2025, the Trump administration withdrawed unique export exemptions for specific SK Hynix, Samsung, and Intel centers in China. The U.S. has actually given that approved a yearly license to Samsung and SK Hynix for sending out chipmaking devices to their plants in China.

The U.S. has actually likewise been pressing foreign chipmakers to construct and broaden their production centers in America. In July, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated he desired Samsung and SK Hynix to construct chip plants in the nation which he remained in talks with both business.

Solidigm is stated to be getting ready for a 2027 U.S. IPO that might raise around $10 billion and worth it at approximately $100 billion.

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