SK Hynix plans to double wafer production capacity by 2030 as chairman warns AI will keep memory tight

At Computex 2026 in Taipei, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won confirmed that the company plans to double its total wafer production capacity within five years, driven by AI demand that he expects to keep memory supply tight through 2030.

"We are going to double the whole capacity over the next five years. There are a lot of obstacles and hurdles, but we will get over them and expand," Chey told reporters. He added that the company would provide whatever funding was required to support the expansion, saying simply, "Whatever we need, we'll provide it."

According to Bloomberg, SK Hynix currently produces around 550,000 DRAM wafers per month, including approximately 200,000 from its Wuxi fab in China. The target is to reach roughly 1 million wafers per month by 2030 to 2031.

Much of the expansion will be centered on the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, where SK Hynix plans to divide its first fab into six cleanrooms and has moved up the first equipment installation schedule from May 2027 to February 2027. That facility alone is expected to add 360,000 wafers per month by the first half of 2030. The M15X fab in Cheongju is also being expanded, with operations expected to begin in the second half of 2026 at an initial capacity of 40,000 wafers per month, rising to around 80,000 wafers per month in 2027.

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The expansion comes as SK Hynix sits at the center of the AI memory market. The company held a 58% share of the global HBM market in the first quarter of 2026, with Samsung and Micron each at 21%. Chey expressed hope that SK Hynix would become the primary HBM supplier for NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin system. Last week, SK Hynix's market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, joining Samsung and Micron in that milestone on the back of AI-driven demand.

Samsung is also accelerating on its end, with reports suggesting it is pulling forward investment at its P4 fab in Pyeongtaek and potentially placing purchase orders for the P5 line starting in the second quarter of next year. All said, the memory capacity race is moving fast, and both companies are betting heavily that AI demand will justify every wafer.