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SK Hynix confirmed in a regulatory filing that it is exploring “various measures,” including the possible creation of a subsidiary focused on AI investment
In sum – what to know:
U.S. AI unit – SK Hynix is weighing a U.S.-based investment unit that could manage about KRW10 trillion in overseas AI assets across SK Group affiliates, though no final decision has been made.
HBM dominance strengthens AI strategy – With an estimated 61% share of the HBM market, SK Hynix is positioning memory as a strategic lever in the global AI hardware race amid tight supply conditions.
Energy and capacity linked to AI growth – Potential exposure to nuclear projects like TerraPower highlights how AI investments increasingly intersect with power infrastructure and data center expansion.
Korean firm SK Hynix is considering setting up a U.S.-based unit dedicated to AI investments, according to reports from South Korean media. The company, part of the SK Group said it is still reviewing several options and has not made a final decision.
Maeil Business Newspaper reported that the proposed U.S. entity could manage around KRW10 trillion ($6.9 billion) in overseas AI-related assets held by SK Group affiliates. The unit would act as a centralized “control tower” to streamline decision-making and oversight of global AI investments.
SK Hynix confirmed in a regulatory filing that it is exploring “various measures,” including the possible creation of a subsidiary focused on AI investment, but emphasized that the structure and timeline remain undecided.
The report comes as memory chips become a key bottleneck in the AI hardware race. High-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is stacked close to AI processors to improve speed and energy efficiency, is in particularly high demand. According to Macquarie Equity Research, SK Hynix held a 61% share of the global HBM market last year, ahead of rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron.
The report also noted that some of the assets overseen by the new unit could include SK and SK Innovation’s stakes in TerraPower, a U.S. nuclear company developing small modular reactors, as data centers drive rising electricity demand.
SK Hynix is also expanding manufacturing capacity to support AI infrastructure. Sungsoo Ryu, CEO of SK Hynix America, told Reuters earlier this month that the company plans to accelerate factory openings and increase HBM output.
In September 2025, SK Hynix announced it had completed development of what it claimed to be the world’s first HBM4 chip for artificial intelligence systems, adding that it was prepared to begin mass production.
According to the Korean company, HBM4 doubles bandwidth with 2,048 input/output connections and achieves speeds above 10 Gbps, outperforming the JEDEC standard of 8 Gbps. Power efficiency improves more than 40% compared to the prior generation, potentially lifting AI service performance by up to 69% while cutting energy consumption in data centers.
In related news, SK Hynix reported revenues of KRW 97.1467 trillion for full fiscal year 2025, up 47% year-on-year. The company also recorded a net profit of KRW 42.9479 trillion, surging 117% compared to the previous fiscal year.
“The results significantly exceeded the previous record set in 2024. The annual revenue increased by more than KRW30 trillion, while the annual operating profit nearly doubled year-on-year, marking the highest annual performance in the company’s history. Growth momentum accelerated further in the fourth quarter. In addition to HBM, demand on conventional memory solutions for servers increased sharply, to which SK hynix responded proactively,” the firm said in its earnings statement.
The company noted that as the AI market shifts from training to inference while demand for distributed architectures expands, the role of memory will become increasingly critical. “Accordingly, not only demand for high-performance memory such as HBM is expected to grow continuously, but also for overall memory products including server DRAM and NAND as well,” SK Hynix added.
