SKHY Reportedly Revives China NAND Plant After 4-Year Pause, Days After $39B Korean Fabs Investment

• SK Hynix subsidiary Solidigm resumed investment in the second Dalian plant during the first half of 2026 and has restarted construction.
• The company plans to begin installing production equipment as early as November and establish a mass-production system in the first half of 2027.
• The facility is expected to add roughly 50,000 wafers per month to the company's NAND capacity once fully operational, from SK Hynix’s existing China capacity of 100,000 wafers per month.

SK Hynix Inc. (SKHY) is said to be ramping up its bet on the AI-driven memory boom, reportedly restarting construction at a long-delayed NAND plant in China just days after announcing a $39 billion investment in new semiconductor fabs in South Korea.

According to a report by Seoul Economic Daily, Solidigm, SK hynix's NAND subsidiary, has resumed work on the second plant at its Dalian production base after construction was suspended for about four years, according to semiconductor industry sources.

SK Hynix’s American Depositary Receipts (ADR) were up nearly 1% in Tuesday’s pre-market trade.

SKHY’s China Plant Comes Back To Life

Solidigm resumed investment in the second Dalian plant during the first half of 2026 and has restarted construction, according to the report. The company plans to begin installing production equipment as early as November and establish a mass-production system in the first half of 2027.

The new line is expected to have a wafer input capacity of around 50,000 wafers per month. With the existing Dalian plant capable of processing roughly 100,000 wafers per month, the expansion would increase SK Hynix's NAND production capacity in the Chinese city by about 50%.

Construction on the second plant began in 2022 but stalled as a downturn in the memory market reduced the need for additional capacity. U.S. restrictions on semiconductor equipment exports to China further complicated the project's progress.

However, the soaring demand for memory due to AI has resulted in a shortage of the crucial component, helping push NAND prices sharply higher. SK Hynix acquired Intel's NAND business in 2021 and launched Solidigm, taking over the existing Dalian facility along with the site of the second plant.

The company plans to use Dalian for more mature NAND production, while concentrating higher-stack NAND manufacturing at its South Korean facilities, including the Cheongju campus, according to the report.

SKHY’s $39B Korean Fab Investment

The Dalian expansion comes days after SK Hynix announced a combined investment of approximately 54 trillion won ($38.1 billion) to build two new fabs in South Korea.

The company approved 35.2 trillion won for the Yongin Y2 fab and 19.1 trillion won for the Cheongju M17 fab as part of its broader strategy to secure production capacity for growing AI memory demand.

Yongin Y2 will serve as a DRAM production base, with the first cleanroom targeted to open in June 2029. The fab will produce High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and other next-generation DRAM products.

Construction is scheduled to begin in July 2027, while SK Hynix expects its first Yongin fab, Y1, to open its initial cleanroom in February 2027.

Cheongju M17, meanwhile, will serve as a new NAND production base. Construction is scheduled to begin in February 2027, with the first cleanroom expected to open in December 2028.

What Retail Traders Think Of SKHY Stock

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around SK Hynix trended in the ‘bearish’ territory at the time of writing.

SKHY ADR is down 20% year-to-date. The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) is up 84% over the past 12 months, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is up 118%.

1 won = $0.00071

Also See: NVDA Teams Up With Wall Street Giants On Massive $500B AI Infrastructure Funding Push: Report

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.