SK hynix reportedly playing hardball with Trump admin over 3D NAND fab — company demands increased chipmaking equipment exports to China in exchange for US fab
SK hynix reportedly conditions building new Solidigm 3D NAND fab in the U.S. to equipment exports to the Solidigm fab in Dalian, China.
SK hynix, parent company of Solidigm, is reportedly pressuring the U.S. government for increased semiconductor manufacturing equipment exports to its Dalian facility in China. The exchange is said to be in exchange for a commitment to build a new 3D NAND fab in the United States, according to Reuters. Solidigm's subsidiary is eyeing the unused portions of its Dalian facility, which was completed in 2023, to install additional manufacturing equipment.
The company never fully equipped the building due to a memory market downturn, leaving a lot of space available for new tools. Despite selling every SSD it produces, unused capacity means lost revenue for Solidigm. The proposed expansion in China is intended to generate profits that could finance its planned American fab and support its current operations until domestic manufacturing capacity becomes available.
Solidigm has also shown interest in developing 5th and 6th Generation floating-gate NAND technology, but has not disclosed plans for expanding manufacturing output at its Dalian facility or building a new fab in the U.S.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
