SK Hynix faces a delay in its proposed $45 billion NAND investment in New York. According to Reuters, U.S. officials have held back export permits for chipmaking equipment needed at its Dalian plant in China. SK Hynix says higher production in China would help fund its U.S. expansion.
SK Hynix's U.S.-based Solidigm unit, which makes NAND memory and SSDs, reportedly plans to invest about $45 billion to build two NAND chip plants in Marcy, New York. The expansion plan now faces a challenge as U.S. officials weigh national security concerns against more chip investments in the country.
Solidigm executives have reportedly met with Commerce Department officials nearly 10 times since late August. At a meeting last week, U.S. Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler maintained that Washington would not allow SK Hynix to bring in more American equipment to expand or upgrade its Dalian plant, according to a source.
The standoff illustrates the tension at the heart of U.S. chip policy: Washington wants more advanced memory manufacturing on American soil, but it is also restricting the flow of U.S. chipmaking equipment to China, where SK Hynix operates a major plant whose output it says would help pay for the New York buildout.
Memory has become one of the most contested parts of the AI supply chain, with demand from data centers driving prices sharply higher and squeezing supplies for phones and computers. A delay to a $45 billion U.S. NAND project would be a setback for efforts to diversify memory production beyond Asia.
Neither the Commerce Department nor SK Hynix has publicly confirmed a new timetable for the Marcy plants. The talks between Solidigm executives and Commerce officials are continuing, and any resolution is likely to depend on whether Washington links permission for the Dalian equipment to progress on the U.S. investment.
