SK Hynix to acquire this foundry for $493 million

On October 29, SK Hynix announced that it would acquire South Korea-based wafer foundry Key Foundry for 576 billion won (US$493 million).

Industry data shows that Key Foundry is an 8-inch wafer foundry in South Korea. It became independent from MagnaChip Semiconductor in September last year. It has a monthly production capacity of 82,000 8-inch wafers and can produce chips for consumer, communications, computers, automotive and industrial applications.

As a world-renowned memory manufacturer, SK Hynix has also been making inroads into the foundry field in recent years. In 2017, SK Hynix officially split its foundry business into an independent business entity. Currently, its subsidiary SK hynix System IC is responsible for its foundry business.

Reuters reported that SK Hynix has been in talks to acquire Key Foundry since the first half of this year. SK Hynix said it expects the acquisition to double its current 8-inch foundry capacity.

Earlier, SK Hynix released its latest financial report showing that its combined revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 was 11.805 trillion won, operating profit was 4.172 trillion won, and net profit was 3.315 trillion won. The operating profit margin in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 was 35%, and the net profit margin was 28%.

SK Hynix achieved the highest quarterly revenue in history since its establishment, and achieved operating profit of more than 4 trillion won for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2018. The main reasons for the record-breaking quarterly revenue were the increase in demand for memory used in servers and mobile applications and the increase in product prices.