SK Hynix Links New US Chip Factory to Approval for Equipment Exports to China

New York: South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix is seeking permission from Washington to ship additional American-made chipmaking equipment to its facility in China, and is making the construction of a new factory in the United States conditional on that approval, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The request centres on Solidigm, the US-based subsidiary of SK Hynix, which wants to install new equipment in unused space at the company’s site in Dalian, China, to increase production of NAND flash memory chips. The move comes amid a global shortage of memory chips that has pushed prices sharply higher. NAND flash memory is a key component of solid-state drives used in data centres that power artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.

Solidigm was reported last month to be considering building a NAND flash memory factory in the United States. Its pursuit of an export licence for the Dalian site, and the decision to tie its US investment plans to that licence, had not previously been disclosed.

According to one of the sources, expanded output from China would help Solidigm finance the proposed US facility and serve as a bridge towards greater domestic production in the United States. Solidigm is also weighing an initial public offering as early as next year, which could raise further funds for the planned factory. Semiconductor fabrication plants typically require several years and billions of dollars to build.

The Dalian facility includes a fabrication space known as Mod B, which SK Hynix built in 2023 but did not fully equip because of a downturn in the memory market. Sources said the space currently holds some chipmaking tools, with capacity for considerably more.

In response, SK Hynix said that equipment installation at Mod B was being carried out in close consultation with, and under authorisation from, the US government, adding that it was not seeking to expand capacity at the facility.

The request places the company at the intersection of two competing priorities in US policy. The Trump administration has been pressing SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics and other foreign chipmakers to build plants in the United States as part of a drive to rebuild domestic manufacturing capacity and create jobs. At the same time, Washington has restricted exports of chipmaking equipment to China in an effort to slow Beijing’s development of advanced semiconductors used in artificial intelligence and military applications.

Last year, the US Commerce Department revoked authorisations that had exempted SK Hynix and Samsung from having to apply for licences for US equipment used in their Chinese plants, describing the arrangement as a Biden-era loophole. In December, the department issued a 2026 licence for SK Hynix’s Dalian site that capped equipment quantities, but it has yet to issue a licence for additional US-made equipment and technology for 2027, one source said.

The Commerce Department, which oversees export controls and has been negotiating semiconductor manufacturing investments, did not respond to a request for comment.

SK Hynix ranks behind Samsung Electronics among the world’s top two suppliers of NAND flash memory. The company has also broken ground on an advanced packaging plant for high-bandwidth memory in Indiana. Meanwhile, China’s domestic NAND flash maker, Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), rose to third place globally in the second quarter of 2026, according to Counterpoint Research.