SK hynix CFO says 2027 capital spending will rise substantially

Kim said on the third-quarter earnings call that the increase covers equipment to expand the share of leading-edge processes and to ramp the first phase of the Yongin cluster. It also includes infrastructure investment in and outside Korea. He did not specify an amount.

SK hynix will decide the scale and timing after weighing medium- to long-term demand visibility from customer talks, product competitiveness, profitability and investment efficiency, Kim said. The company said it expects a memory supply shortage to persist through 2030, citing rising technical difficulty at leading-edge processes and the time needed to build new fabs.

Revenue was 104.62 trillion won ($75.5 billion) in the July-September period, up 327.9 percent from a year earlier and above 100 trillion won for the first time, Korea Herald reported. Operating profit rose 632.1 percent to 83.33 trillion won, beating market expectations of around 77 trillion won. The operating margin reached a record 79.7 percent, up from 76.3 percent in the previous quarter.

Sold-out memory supports spending

SK hynix said its DRAM and HBM output was effectively sold out through 2029, based on signed long-term agreements and demand under discussion with customers, Korea Herald reported. Signed agreements cover more than 50 percent of production capacity for 2027 and 2028, the company said, leaving the rest available for market changes and next-generation products. Kim Ki-tae, head of HBM sales and marketing, said customers are requesting more than twice the volume SK hynix can supply.

SK hynix expects HBM4 to overtake HBM3E in shipment volume and revenue in the fourth quarter of 2026, Korea Herald reported. The company plans to raise the share of its 1c DRAM process and increase operation of M15X in Cheongju to boost HBM4 capacity, Chosun Biz reported. It also said it plans to bring M15X to full capacity by the end of the year and expand HBM4 production.

Yongin and Cheongju approvals

Y1, the first fab at the Yongin cluster, is due to open its first cleanroom in February 2027, about three months ahead of the original schedule, Reuters and Cleanroom Technology reported. A cleanroom opening comes before equipment installation and mass production, so the date is not a shipment start, Motley Fool reported.

On Aug. 7, the board approved a combined 54 trillion won ($38 billion) for the Y2 DRAM fab in Yongin and the M17 NAND fab in Cheongju, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. The board assigned 35.2 trillion won to Y2 and 19.1 trillion won to M17. Y2's first cleanroom is due in June 2029 and M17's in December 2028.

The approval is part of a 1.1 quadrillion won mid- to long-term plan announced in June, which allotted 600 trillion won to Yongin. The 54 trillion won approval is about 5 percent of the 1.1 quadrillion won plan. Yongin's 600 trillion won allotment is more than half of the plan. Reuters reported the Yongin cluster is part of a planned 600 trillion won ($407 billion) investment that will eventually house four fabs.

Supply stays tight

Hyundai Motor Securities said new fabrication capacity in Korea is unlikely to come online until the second half of 2027. SK Securities cited limited cleanroom space and said large-scale equipment investment starts later that year, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.