SK hynix announced Friday that it will invest approximately 54 trillion won ($38.1 billion) to construct new semiconductor fabrication plants in Yongin and Cheongju, accelerating its production capacity expansion as artificial intelligence fuels surging demand for memory chips.

The company's board has approved 35.2 trillion won for Y2, the second fab at the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in Gyeonggi Province, and 19.1 trillion won for M17, a new NAND flash manufacturing facility in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

These investments form part of a long-term expansion plan unveiled in June, under which SK hynix intends to commit a total of 600 trillion won to the Yongin cluster and an additional 100 trillion won to expand its Cheongju production base. The scale of the commitment underscores how the world's second-largest memory chipmaker is racing to defend its lead in high-bandwidth memory against intensifying competition from Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, both of which are also pouring billions into advanced memory capacity to serve AI accelerator manufacturers such as NVIDIA.

"In the AI era, technological competitiveness alone is not enough. The ability to supply customers with the products they need when they need them is itself a source of competitiveness," an SK hynix official said. "We decided on the investment after a careful review of demand."

Y2 will be the second of four fabs planned for the Yongin cluster, with a total floor area of approximately 1.13 million square meters. Construction is slated to begin in July of next year, and the first clean room is expected to open in June 2029. The facility will manufacture next-generation DRAM products, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a critical component in AI accelerators. SK hynix currently supplies HBM3E — the latest generation of the stacked-memory technology — to NVIDIA, and ramping next-generation HBM output will be central to maintaining that relationship as AI model training and inference workloads multiply. Investment in Y2 will be deployed in phases through October 2031.

SK hynix is currently constructing Y1, the cluster's first fab, with its initial clean room scheduled to open in February of next year. The company has accelerated its target for completing all four Yongin fabs to 2033, pulled forward from the original 2045 timeline. The 12-year compression reflects both the urgency of AI-driven demand and broader pressure on the global semiconductor supply chain, as governments and hyperscalers alike seek to secure adequate chip-making capacity.

The Yongin cluster spans roughly 4.2 million square meters in the city's Wonsam district. The first phase of its power and water infrastructure is nearing completion, with work 99 percent done.

In Cheongju, the M17 facility will cover approximately 681,000 square meters. Construction is scheduled to commence in February 2027, and the first clean room is slated to open in December 2028. Investments will be made in stages through April 2031.

SK hynix already operates its M11, M12, and M15 NAND fabs at the Cheongju site, enabling the new facility to leverage existing land, power, and water infrastructure while connecting with nearby production lines. NAND flash demand, while currently softer than the AI-driven surge in DRAM and HBM, is expected to benefit over the longer term from growing storage needs in data centers and on-device AI applications.

"This investment is aimed at ensuring we do not miss opportunities as the market grows," an SK hynix official said. "By securing production infrastructure ahead of demand, we aim to become a key AI infrastructure partner contributing to a stable global AI semiconductor supply chain."