SK Hynix plans to expand its HBM4 production capacity further, the Korean daily ETNews reported on 15 November, citing several semiconductor equipment company officials. One industry official told the paper the company’s P&T6 fab in Cheongju could make 20,000 or more additional HBM wafers a month at full operation.
That is about 13% of the roughly 150,000 wafers a month at which ETNews estimated SK Hynix’s total HBM capacity at the end of 2025, by our arithmetic. The figures are industry estimates reported by ETNews, not company numbers.
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The key insight: As we read the report, the step SK Hynix is adding is the back end: the equipment in talks is for bonding, dicing and inspection, and P&T6 is a packaging and test fab, ETNews reported. Its industry source puts the full-run addition at 20,000 or more wafers a month, about 13% of the end-2025 estimate, by our arithmetic.
ETNews reported that SK Hynix is discussing purchase orders for HBM4 manufacturing equipment with partners, mainly back-end suppliers of bonding, dicing and inspection tools. It said the company is coordinating the timing and volume of those orders.
A partner official familiar with the matter told the paper that SK Hynix “is hurrying its schedule, targeting equipment move-in and installation (set-up) in the first half of next year” (our translation). Some equipment is reportedly requested for delivery by the first quarter, ETNews reported.
The paper named P&T6, the Cheongju fab formerly called M8, as the likely site. SK Hynix chose it as an HBM production base in 2025 and has been building HBM lines there since early this year, ETNews said. Another industry official described the aim as “making maximum use of the idle space in the P&T6 fab” (our translation).
SK Hynix HBM capacity in wafers a month: the about 150,000 end-2025 estimate and the about 20,000 P&T6 figure are industry estimates reported by ETNews (12 Feb 2026); the 20,000-or-more full-run addition is from ETNews (15 Nov 2026). The 170,000 total and the 13.3% are our arithmetic. Not company figures.
What Was Posted on X
Korean media report that SK hynix plans to further expand its HBM4 production capacity, aiming to add at least 20,000 wafers per month.
The company is moving ahead despite the Jensen Huang scandal. According to the reports, demand from other customers, including AMD and Broadcom, remains strong even if Nvidia’s AI chip business faces disruption.
Nvidia’s recent decision to lower the HBM4 bandwidth target for its next-generation Vera Rubin platform is also seen as a positive. The revised target is easier for memory suppliers to meet, easing the manufacturing burden. That change reportedly helped inform SK hynix’s decision to expand capacity.
The semiconductor commentator Jukan (@jukan05) posted this at 09:40 UTC on 15 November, summarising Korean media reports that SK Hynix plans to add at least 20,000 HBM4 wafers a month and citing demand from AMD and Broadcom. The piece traces the figure to ETNews’s 15 November report, which attributes it to an unnamed industry official speaking of the P&T6 fab at full operation, and compares it with ETNews’s own end-2025 capacity estimate.
Why SK Hynix Is Adding Capacity
ETNews reported an industry view that AI chip demand stays solid even with uncertainty after the change of Nvidia’s chief executive, because demand from AMD, Broadcom and others is strong. Our Nvidia hub tracks that governance and market story.
ETNews also said Nvidia had lowered the HBM4 bandwidth target for its next-generation Vera Rubin chip, easing suppliers’ process burden, and that the change is analysed as having influenced SK Hynix’s decision.
On its third-quarter earnings call on 28 October, SK Hynix said its DRAM and HBM volumes “for the next three years through 2029 are effectively all sold out”, as ZDNet Korea reported (our translation). The company also said “current customer requested volumes exceed twice what we can supply”.
Asked by ETNews, an SK Hynix official said: “We have continued to place equipment orders in line with our plans” and “we plan to respond to market expansion without disruption” (our translation). The company did not confirm the 20,000 figure or the P&T6 site in that statement.
We found no SK Hynix newsroom release on the expansion in the sources we checked by 10:00 UTC on 15 November, and we did not contact the company for this piece.
How Big Is 20,000 Wafers
ETNews estimated SK Hynix’s total HBM capacity at about 150,000 wafers a month at the end of 2025, in a February report. Adding 20,000 would take that to about 170,000, a rise of 13.3%, by our arithmetic.
A December 2025 ETNews report put SK Hynix at 160,000 to 170,000 wafers a month. On that base the addition is 12% to 13%, by our arithmetic. The same report said Samsung planned about 250,000 wafers a month of HBM capacity by the end of 2026, from about 170,000.
The February ETNews report had already said P&T6 would add about 20,000 wafers a month at full operation. The new report says the expansion goes beyond what was scheduled, but does not break out how much of the 20,000 or more is new.
The Structural Read
As we read the call, the company’s own words frame the gap: SK Hynix said customer requests exceed twice what it can supply, as ZDNet Korea reported, while the reported P&T6 addition is about 13% of estimated capacity, by our arithmetic.
As we read the December report, the rival base is moving too: ETNews said Samsung planned about 250,000 wafers a month of HBM capacity by the end of 2026, from about 170,000, a rise ETNews put at about 47% or more.
SK Hynix official, as quoted by ETNews, 15 Nov 2026 (our translation)
“We have continued to place equipment orders in line with our plans”
Three Implications
FOR EQUIPMENT MAKERS ETNews reported that back-end suppliers of bonding, dicing and inspection tools are in talks on order timing and volume, with some deliveries requested by the first quarter.
FOR HBM BUYERS SK Hynix said on its 28 October call that its DRAM and HBM volumes through 2029 are effectively sold out, as ZDNet Korea reported.
FOR THE TIMELINE ETNews reported a target of equipment move-in and set-up in the first half of 2027; the 20,000-wafer figure refers to full operation of P&T6.
The analysis says: “HBM growth is outpacing accelerator demand, making memory the rate-limiting factor in the AI scaling equation.”
As we read it, this report puts that constraint at the packaging step: the reported orders are back-end tools and the likely site is a packaging and test fab, per ETNews. The analysis was published in December 2025 and does not discuss this expansion.
What Is Not Established
SK Hynix has not confirmed the 20,000 figure, the site or the timing; all three come from unnamed equipment and industry officials quoted by ETNews. The capacity totals are industry estimates, and ETNews’s two estimates for end-2025 differ.
It is not clear whether the 20,000 or more wafers are on top of the about 20,000 ETNews reported for P&T6 in February, or largely the same capacity brought forward. The quotations from Korean sources are our translations.
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SK Hynix plans to expand HBM4 capacity, with the Cheongju P&T6 fab the likely site and equipment set-up targeted for the first half of 2027, ETNews reported on 15 November. An industry official put the full-run addition at 20,000 or more wafers a month, about 13% of ETNews’s end-2025 capacity estimate, by our arithmetic.
A note on sourcing. The expansion plan, the equipment talks, the P&T6 site, the timing and the 20,000-or-more figure come from ETNews’s report of 15 November, which we read in full in Korean; it cites unnamed equipment and industry officials, and SK Hynix’s on-record comment is limited to the statement quoted. The end-2025 capacity estimates come from ETNews reports of 12 February 2026 and 30 December 2025.
The earnings-call quotes are as ZDNet Korea reported them on 28 October. Jukan’s X post of 15 November flagged the report. Korean quotations are our translations; the 13.3% and the 170,000 total are our arithmetic. The company was not contacted for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
