In February 2018, SK Hynix co-founded Haichen Semiconductor (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. with the Wuxi Industry Development Group with a registered capital of US$150 million. Its main business includes production, sales of integrated circuit.
It is reported that in this joint venture, SK Hynix and Wuxi Industry Development Group contributed 50.1% and 49.9% respectively. SK Hynix offers tangible and intangible assets such as 8-inch wafer production equipment, and the Wuxi Industry Development Group provides the necessary infrastructure such as plant and water. SK Hynix plans to move the production equipment of the M8 plant in Cheongju to the Wuxi joint venture factory in batches by the end of 2021.
The Wuxi joint venture foundry is mainly responsible for production, so the core R&D of SK Hynix 8-inch wafer foundry will remain in Korea, furthermore, SK Hynix’s 12-inch wafer foundry will remain in Korea as well, this production line is mainly used to produce high value-added products such as CMOS image sensors.
As the mainstream of IC manufacturing, 8-inch wafers have become the focus of SK Hynix's current operations. SK Hynix also said that it will accelerate the expansion of its foundry business by developing its strategy in China and R&D in Korea.
