SK hynix (000660.KS) Chief Executive Kwak Noh-jung said the company will further cement its dominance in the memory chip market on the strength of new global production bases under construction in South Korea, the United States and elsewhere.
Speaking at the 2026 Global Tech Forum held at the Santa Clara Marriott in California on the 18th, Kwak said demand for AI memory will remain high as the artificial intelligence industry keeps growing, according to SK hynix on the 21st. "Through the new global production bases and research foundations we are preparing in step with that demand, we will firmly defend our current technological edge and overwhelming market dominance," he said.
SK hynix is building a 600 trillion won ($430 billion) semiconductor cluster in Yongin, which is set to begin operating in February next year, along with a 400 trillion won cluster in the Honam region, a 100 trillion won fab in Cheongju and a roughly 5.4 trillion won fab in Indiana. The company is also said to be weighing additional fabs in the United States and Japan. Kwak used the global stage, attended by Big Tech customers and prospective talent, to reiterate the company's vision of sustaining its competitive edge in memory through that aggressive investment posture.
The Global Tech Forum is an annual event SK hynix has hosted since 2012 to present its technology vision and growth direction to global talent. Kwak and other senior executives, including Development Chief Ahn Hyun, along with working-level executives, in-house experts and researchers from major U.S. universities, attended in large numbers to share the company's blueprint for the future.
"Without memory, the AI industry cannot exist," Kwak said. "Just as SK hynix set a new milestone with high-bandwidth memory, we will continue to open new possibilities for AI through the next-generation memory we are preparing." Following HBM, the company is developing next-generation technologies such as high-bandwidth flash, or HBF, in a bid to capture the market early.
In a panel discussion that followed the keynote, held under the theme "At the Inflection Point of Technology: Opening the Next Chapter of Memory," participants agreed that future competition in memory technology will hinge not only on improving the performance of individual technologies but also on the ability to connect different technologies and offer system-level solutions.
At a roundtable, working-level executives and academic experts discussed key issues in memory technology in the AI era and future development directions. A space introducing research papers by SK hynix scholarship students was also set up for the first time this year.
