[News] SK hynix Reportedly Places 44.2bn Won TC Bonder Order with Hanmi, Accelerating HBM4 Ramp-up

Following Jensen Huang’s push for higher HBM supply from SK hynix, the memory maker has taken another step to ramp up production. According to ET News, SK hynix has placed a 44.2 billion won order with Hanmi Semiconductor for TC (thermal compression) bonders used in sixth-generation HBM (HBM4) production.

The HBM bonder is a critical piece of equipment used to vertically stack and bond DRAM dies. Hanmi Semiconductor launched its TC Bonder 4 for HBM4 in mid-2025 and has since upgraded the system for SK hynix, ET News notes, adding that the new equipment is expected to be installed at the company’s back-end facility in Cheongju.

A separate report from Hankyung notes that the contract value represents around 7.7% of Hanmi Semiconductor’s 2025 revenue. Based on an estimated unit price of roughly 3 billion won per TC bonder, the deal is believed to cover around 15 units of equipment, the report adds.

ETNews adds that concerns had emerged over potential HBM4 ramp-up delays during the transition from HBM3E to HBM4 due to restrained capex. The latest order from SK hynix, however, is seen as easing those concerns as production scales.

As previously reported by Bloomberg, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, SK hynix’s largest HBM customer, said during his visit to Korea on the 5th that all three memory makers have passed HBM4 qualification tests and are now moving into mass production.

SK hynix’s Expansion Plan

Notably, SK hynix’s latest investment aligns with comments made by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won at Computex 2026, where he said the company would double overall wafer production capacity within five years at full speed.

According to ZDNet, SK hynix is actively expanding advanced DRAM and HBM capacity at its Cheongju M15X plant, while also boosting back-end production through multiple packaging and testing (P&T) facility expansions.

Beyond near-term capacity builds, The Elec reports that SK hynix has laid out a longer-term expansion roadmap. The company aims to increase monthly DRAM wafer capacity from around 550,000 wafers currently to roughly 1 million by 2030. Much of this expansion will be centered on the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, while its Cheongju M15X fab is expected to begin operations in 2H26 with an initial 40,000 wafers per month, rising to around 80,000 wafers per month in 2027.

Read more

• [News] SK hynix to Supply Memory for NVIDIA Vera CPU as Partnership Deepens; Samsung Meeting in Spotlight
• [News] SK hynix Reportedly to Double DRAM Capacity to 1M Monthly Wafers by 2030, Speeds Yongin Expansion

(Photo credit: SK hynix)