According to Businesskorea, SK hynix's acquisition of the foundry Key Foundry is nearing completion.

At the end of October 2021, SK Hynix announced a wholly-owned acquisition of Key Foundry, which is subject to antitrust reviews in major countries such as South Korea, China, the United States, and Europe.

The deal was approved by the Korea Fair Trade Commission in March this year. The review opinion holds that the combined market share of SK hynix's foundry division and Key Foundry is only about 5%, which will not lead to the risk of hindering competition. Since Key Foundry does not have a 12-inch advanced process production capacity, the merger will not affect TSMC and other manufacturers that currently undertake the OEM demand of SK Hynix's advanced process products.

The report pointed out that SK Hynix acquired Key foundry in order to expand the recent surge in 8-inch foundry demand. After the acquisition, the production capacity of SK Hynix's 8-inch wafers will reach nearly 200,000 wafers per month.