SK hynix has opened a second front in Washington, asking the US government to let its Solidigm unit ship American chipmaking equipment to its Dalian NAND plant.
The request is tied to a condition: approval would accompany the company’s continued commitment to build a memory factory on US soil, Reuters reported on October 15, citing unnamed sources.
Solidigm has been weighing a US NAND fab for some time and has been examining site options. Linking the two issues turns an investment decision into a bargaining chip at a moment when Washington is pressing Korean memory makers to add domestic capacity.
Separately, SK hynix has deferred some HBM4 back-end equipment orders into 2027. Analysts read the deferral as capital rotating toward conventional DRAM, where returns are currently stronger, rather than a technical failure.
The two threads hit the same investor nerve. Depository receipts traded in New York fell across seven straight sessions to roughly $157 before recovering, with the company sitting at about five times forward earnings.
