An aerial view of the site in Yongin, Geyonggi Province, where SK hynix will build its second huge memory chip complex in Korea. (Photos: SK hynix)

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, announced on Feb. 21 it will build four fabrication lines at a new semiconductor industrial complex in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

The project will cost about 120 trillion won ($106.65 billion). The complex will be as large as 600 football fields in size.

A special purpose company, set up by SK Engineering & Construction and a number of financial investors, has submitted a letter of intent for the investment to the city of Yongin, joining hands to build a new cluster for chipmakers’ R&D centers and production facilities.

Other companies that will join the giant project include Samwon Integrated Development and Kyobo Securities. SK hynix is ready to spend some 1.6 trillion won alone to prepare the ground for the construction with more than 50 cooperative firms including parts equipment and materials suppliers, also to locate their plants inside the complex as soon as it is completed.

The government lost no time helping the semi-conductor maker to secure the government license to build the complex as planned. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy requested the related ministries including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Sports to be prepared to lend their support to SK hynix so that it can complete the mammoth project on time as scheduled.

The ministry confirmed that the project is needed for the country’s further economic development and requested the Capital Area Control Committee to soften up the regulations enough to allow the huge chip complex to be built as applied by the chip giant

Rep. Song Suk-joon from Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, wanted to have the project moved to somewhere around Icheon, where his election district is located, and where the chip company has its head office. He said it was extremely regretful that the chip company wants to build the complex in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, of all places, rather than Icheon.

He really feels sorry for SK hynix troubles and difficulties that led to make the inevitable decision to locate its giant chip project to the place other than Icheon, where, he thinks, everything is already in place for another chip production complex.

Rep. Song said he truly welcomes the company’s mammoth plan to build another chip complex in Korea, which will help the nation’s chip industry to compete with rival chip industries in other countries.

The parliamentarian blamed the Capital Area Control Regulations for chip company’s choice of Yongin to locate its complex other than Icheon. “The chip complex should be built in Icheon so that SK hynix can compete with its global rival chipmakers with the advantages of having the new chip complex in Icheon to maintain its global competitive power as even little kids know,” the legislator cried out.

The chip fabrication plants will be built on a 4.5 million square meter site south of Seoul beginning 2022, complementing two existing domestic factories that will receive a separate 55 trillion won ($49 billion) investment over the next decade.

The latter investment will be used for contractors under coprosperity programs aimed at developing chips needed for artificial intelligence. Of the amount, 300 billion won will be injected to create funds, 638 billion won to establish an AI-based cooperation center and promote relevant programs, and 280 billion won for joint research and development projects.

The company plans to maintain the headquarters and fab for DRAM in Icheon, and make the Cheongju fab a NAND flash-focused facility.
The plan intensifies an arms race between South Korea, the world’s biggest exporter of memory chips, and China, which has been aggressively encouraging chipmaking investment to curb reliance on imports amid a trade spat with the United States.

A view of the SK hynix Icheon semiconductor plant.