SK Hynix bargains for chip equipment exports to its China facility in return for building a factory in US

SK Hynix’s Solidigm is reportedly seeking U.S. approval to send more chipmaking equipment to China as it weighs building a new NAND chip factory in America. SK Hynix appears to be navigating choppy U.S.-China chipmaking waters. The company’s flash memory unit, Solidigm, is seeking U.S. approval to send American chipmaking equipment to its factory in Dalian, China, as a condition to continue building a semiconductor factory in the U.S., Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. Solidigm has been reportedly chalking up plans to build a NAND flash memory chip factory in the U.S. and is considering upstate New York as a potential location for the facility. NAND flash chips are primarily used in solid-state storage drives, which are employed in everything from laptops and smartphones to AI data centers.

But the global component shortage, thanks to skyrocketing demand for AI data centers, has driven up prices for everything that goes into data centers, including high-speed RAM chips and SSDs. Research firm TrendForce expects NAND prices to rise 15% to 20% in the fourth quarter. Reuters cited its sources as saying that Solidigm wants to install more chipmaking equipment in spare space at SK Hynix’s Dalian factory in China to boost NAND chip production. SK Hynix told TechCrunch it is not seeking to expand capacity at its Dalian Mod B facility, which