SK Hynix will build an advanced packaging fab, P&T7, in Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province, with total investment of 19 trillion won. SK Hynix disclosed the plan on Jan. 13 through its newsroom.

The new fab will be a facility that carries out advanced packaging processes essential for manufacturing AI memory such as HBM (high-bandwidth memory). It aims to begin construction in April 2026 on a 70,000-pyeong site in the Cheongju Technopolis industrial complex and complete it by the end of 2027.

The investment is a decision to respond to rising global demand for AI memory, it said. The HBM market is expected to grow 33 percent a year on average from 2025 to 2030.

The company said it comprehensively reviewed Cheongju by considering production optimisation at the Cheongju fab while also weighing supply chain efficiency and future competitiveness. After reviewing various candidates at home and abroad, it said it chose Cheongju for access to front-end processes and for logistics and operational stability.

P&T7 is a facility that turns semiconductor chips produced at front-end fabs into products and carries out final quality verification. It will be organically linked with M15X, which is being promoted in Cheongju. M15X, a new fab with a total investment of 20 trillion won announced in 2024, will be responsible for producing next-generation DRAM such as HBM. It opened its clean room in October 2025, earlier than initially planned, and is currently setting up equipment sequentially.

Cheongju already completed the M15 fab in 2018. The company said it has made investment decisions by prioritising business competitiveness and operational efficiency. If M15X and P&T7 are linked, Cheongju will establish itself as the company's key base for AI memory. With front-end and back-end processes located in the same region, connectivity between processes will increase.

The company is reviewing measures the government is pursuing to ease corporate investment burdens and strengthen the ability to carry out large-scale, long-term investments. It stressed it expects such improvements in the institutional environment to help increase efficiency in investment structures and manage investment risks systematically.