#SK海力士ADR指导价149美元 SK hynix: The biggest memory shortage in history is coming next year
On Friday, U.S. Eastern Time, on the day that SK hynix, a storage giant in South Korea, made its debut on the Nasdaq, the company’s CEO, Kwak-roong, said the global storage industry is expected to face the worst-ever supply shortage in 2027. He also emphasized that although the company is aggressively expanding capacity, forecasts still indicate that memory demand will remain higher than its production capacity for the long term over the next decade.
The biggest memory shortage in history is coming next year
On Friday, U.S. Eastern Time, Kwak-roong told the media: “We expect next year to be the most supply-constrained year in the history of this industry… customer demand continues to grow, while our capacity is constrained. We still expect that even after 2030, customer demand will remain higher than our supply capacity. But we are doing our utmost to address this.” Kwak-roong’s remarks came after the South Korean chipmaker’s successful listing.
Leveraging its leading position in HBM development used in NVIDIA’s chip platform, SK hynix has become a key company in the AI supply chain. As of Friday’s market close, SK hynix’s shares rose 12.76% on its first day on the Nasdaq, valuing the company at $1.22 trillion.
U.S. wafer fabs are being considered
Kwak-roong also said that the U.S. remains one of the candidate locations for the company’s future wafer-fabrication investment, although no decision has been made yet. He said the company will prioritize regions that can provide sufficient land, power, water, and skilled workers, and that also offer competitive manufacturing costs. “If these conditions are met, the U.S., Japan, and Southeast Asia are all under consideration,” Kwak said. “No decision has been made yet; we are evaluating which location can bring the greatest business advantage.” In addition to expanding production sites overseas, SK hynix’s current main plants are located in its headquarters locations—Icheon and Cheongju—and the company is building a large facility in Yongin.
Recently, both SK hynix and Samsung Electronics took part in a South Korean government plan aimed at doubling the country’s production capacity for storage chips within five years. The plan includes investing 4,000 trillion won (about $266 billion) in the southwest of South Korea to build chip production facilities. However, the plan has made some investors uneasy, as they worry that if the economy turns down, these storage companies will face greater risk. In the U.S., SK hynix is investing about $4 billion to build an advanced chip packaging factory in Indiana. It also plans to invest $10 billion in an artificial intelligence solutions company in the U.S., aiming to find a new engine for AI growth.
AI demand faces scrutiny
Even so, there are speculations that the AI investment cycle is approaching a turning point, which is why global chip stocks have been under pressure recently. As news emerged that Meta is trying to commercialize excess AI computing capacity, concerns have intensified.
However, industry executives and analysts pointed out that memory supply continues to lag behind demand. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said last month that due to strong demand, the AI memory shortage will persist for several years, adding that SK hynix will continue to be the company’s largest memory supplier. UBS similarly expects that the global DRAM industry will remain in short supply at least until the second quarter of 2028. Similarly, Bank of America is optimistic about the AI investment cycle, forecasting that this year global mega-scale cloud computing companies’ capital expenditures will reach approximately $12.2k, rising to $4M next year, mainly driven by strong cloud service orders, improved ROI on AI investments, and growth in demand for compute-intensive AI applications. The bank said that about $851B of funding raised this year by leading mega-scale firms primarily reflects balance-sheet optimization rather than signs of financing pressure, and it emphasized that capital remains sufficient to support continued infrastructure investment.
On Thursday, Micron further reinforced this optimistic outlook. The company said it plans to invest more than $11.5k in the U.S. before 2035, up from the $244B plan announced last year. Its rationale is a surge in demand for storage chips in the AI era and President Trump’s push to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
On Friday, U.S. Eastern Time, on the day that SK hynix, a storage giant in South Korea, made its debut on the Nasdaq, the company’s CEO, Kwak-roong, said the global storage industry is expected to face the worst-ever supply shortage in 2027. He also emphasized that although the company is aggressively expanding capacity, forecasts still indicate that memory demand will remain higher than its production capacity for the long term over the next decade.
The biggest memory shortage in history is coming next year
On Friday, U.S. Eastern Time, Kwak-roong told the media: “We expect next year to be the most supply-constrained year in the history of this industry… customer demand continues to grow, while our capacity is constrained. We still expect that even after 2030, customer demand will remain higher than our supply capacity. But we are doing our utmost to address this.” Kwak-roong’s remarks came after the South Korean chipmaker’s successful listing.
Leveraging its leading position in HBM development used in NVIDIA’s chip platform, SK hynix has become a key company in the AI supply chain. As of Friday’s market close, SK hynix’s shares rose 12.76% on its first day on the Nasdaq, valuing the company at $1.22 trillion.
U.S. wafer fabs are being considered
Kwak-roong also said that the U.S. remains one of the candidate locations for the company’s future wafer-fabrication investment, although no decision has been made yet. He said the company will prioritize regions that can provide sufficient land, power, water, and skilled workers, and that also offer competitive manufacturing costs. “If these conditions are met, the U.S., Japan, and Southeast Asia are all under consideration,” Kwak said. “No decision has been made yet; we are evaluating which location can bring the greatest business advantage.” In addition to expanding production sites overseas, SK hynix’s current main plants are located in its headquarters locations—Icheon and Cheongju—and the company is building a large facility in Yongin.
Recently, both SK hynix and Samsung Electronics took part in a South Korean government plan aimed at doubling the country’s production capacity for storage chips within five years. The plan includes investing 4,000 trillion won (about $266 billion) in the southwest of South Korea to build chip production facilities. However, the plan has made some investors uneasy, as they worry that if the economy turns down, these storage companies will face greater risk. In the U.S., SK hynix is investing about $4 billion to build an advanced chip packaging factory in Indiana. It also plans to invest $10 billion in an artificial intelligence solutions company in the U.S., aiming to find a new engine for AI growth.
AI demand faces scrutiny
Even so, there are speculations that the AI investment cycle is approaching a turning point, which is why global chip stocks have been under pressure recently. As news emerged that Meta is trying to commercialize excess AI computing capacity, concerns have intensified.
However, industry executives and analysts pointed out that memory supply continues to lag behind demand. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said last month that due to strong demand, the AI memory shortage will persist for several years, adding that SK hynix will continue to be the company’s largest memory supplier. UBS similarly expects that the global DRAM industry will remain in short supply at least until the second quarter of 2028. Similarly, Bank of America is optimistic about the AI investment cycle, forecasting that this year global mega-scale cloud computing companies’ capital expenditures will reach approximately $12.2k, rising to $4M next year, mainly driven by strong cloud service orders, improved ROI on AI investments, and growth in demand for compute-intensive AI applications. The bank said that about $851B of funding raised this year by leading mega-scale firms primarily reflects balance-sheet optimization rather than signs of financing pressure, and it emphasized that capital remains sufficient to support continued infrastructure investment.
On Thursday, Micron further reinforced this optimistic outlook. The company said it plans to invest more than $11.5k in the U.S. before 2035, up from the $244B plan announced last year. Its rationale is a surge in demand for storage chips in the AI era and President Trump’s push to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
