Equipment spending is climbing so fast that SEMI now projects the global market at $165.9B in 2026, up 23.2 percent, with $201.2B and $229.5B to follow in 2027 and 2028. Hanmi Semiconductor is betting on that curve with its largest plant purchase yet: a factory at Incheon’s Juan National Industrial Complex bought from Mercury Co., spanning 221,683 square feet.
The deal totals $91.4M, including $39.4M in acquisition costs, and Hanmi plans mass production in the second quarter of 2027 after remodeling and new infrastructure. Output will focus on TC bonders and hybrid bonders for HBM, 2.5D packaging tools for AI semiconductors and the BOC COB bonder for high-performance memory. The move follows a $70.3M investment in Plant 7, a hybrid bonder facility, a year ago, and will bring total production line area to about 1.22 million square feet.
Hanmi sees demand everywhere: Micron buying fabs from AUO and PSMC for HBM output, TSMC adding 25 Taiwan fabs and lifting its US investment to $265B, and Elon Musk’s $119B Terafab in Austin. Bonders remain a bottleneck, so the new capacity targets lead times that stretched as AI packaging orders flooded in.
