South Korea's SK Hynix just made a $10 billion bet on America's AI future. The memory chip giant announced Wednesday it's setting up a dedicated U.S.-based AI company, marking one of the largest foreign investments in American artificial intelligence infrastructure. The move comes as SK Hynix rides a historic wave of AI-driven memory demand, transforming itself from a traditional chipmaker into a crucial player in the global AI supply chain.
SK Hynix is planting its flag in America's AI gold rush. The South Korean memory giant revealed plans Wednesday to establish a dedicated U.S. artificial intelligence company backed by at least $10 billion in committed capital, signaling a dramatic expansion beyond its core memory chip business.
The new entity, tentatively dubbed "AI Company" or "AI Co.," will serve as the strategic nerve center for SK Group's global AI ambitions. According to the announcement via CNBC, SK Hynix plans to restructure its California-based subsidiary Solidigm—an enterprise solid-state drive manufacturer created in 2021—into this new AI-focused operation. Solidigm's existing SSD business will spin off into a separate entity called Solidigm Inc.
The timing couldn't be more strategic. Just hours earlier, SK Hynix reported forecast-beating fourth-quarter earnings powered by relentless demand for high-bandwidth memory chips. These specialized HBM chips have become the bottleneck in AI infrastructure, commanding premium prices as ongoing shortages ripple through the supply chain.
"SK Hynix has emerged as a major AI player in recent years due to its leadership in high-bandwidth memory chips, a type of memory used in AI chipsets like those from Nvidia," the company noted in its statement. That leadership position has translated into record profits and positioned SK Hynix as one of the few companies capable of meeting hyperscaler demand for next-generation AI memory.
