
The South Korean company now aims to begin mass production of its next-generation HBM chip in the third quarter, it said in a statement Thursday. That’s a move intended to keep SK Hynix ahead of Samsung Electronics Co in providing the advanced components, which work alongside Nvidia Corp accelerators in creating and hosting AI platforms.
SK Hynix is one of the suppliers of critical components for a boom in the development of ChatGPT-like services from the US to China. The company, which last week recorded its fastest pace of revenue growth since 2010, has seen its shares gain more than 20% this year on expectations it will continue to lead the market in providing HBM chips.
The stock was little changed in Seoul trading on Thursday.
SK Hynix said last month it plans to spend about US$14.6 billion building a new memory chip complex in South Korea to meet that demand. It’s also erecting a US$4 billion packaging facility in Indiana — its first in the US.
In response to a question about how the company would pay for the investments, CFO Kim Woo-hyun said he expects the company to generate sufficient cash from operations to fund the necessary projects.
Mid-to-long term, the company plans to secure capital, considering the balance between cash generation and its financial health.