SK Hynix Flooded With Unprecedented Big Tech Orders for Memory Chips
South Korea's SK Hynix says it has received "unprecedented" orders from big tech firms eager to lock in supplies of high-bandwidth memory chips for AI servers. The chipmaker says its 2026 production capacity is largely sold out. Its shares are trading near record highs in Seoul.
Briefing investors in Seoul, SK Hynix chief executive Kwak Noh-jung said major customers led by Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet were ordering more than double the volumes seen in previous supply agreements. The company's 2026 lines for HBM3 and HBM4 chips used in AI accelerators are largely booked.
New fabrication lines under construction at the firm's Cheongju and Icheon sites in South Korea will lift capacity by about 30% by mid-2027. Even so, demand is rising faster, and executives warned the supply shortfall may not fully close even by then.
The situation underscores how memory has become the tightest bottleneck in the global AI hardware race. Samsung Electronics and Micron are pushing aggressive production expansions in their bid to capture share of the HBM segment.
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