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| ▲ Park Jung-ho, vice chair and co-CEO of SK hynix Inc., speaks at an annual shareholders meeting in Icheon, 52 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where the chipmaker's headquarters is located, on March 29, 2023. (Yonhap) |
SK hynix-Chips Act
SK hynix not sure yet whether to apply for Chips Act funding: CEO
SEOUL, March 29 (Yonhap) -- SK hynix Inc. is not sure yet whether to apply for U.S. government grants under the Chips Act, the chipmaker's top executive said Wednesday, calling the process too complicated.
While the application is under serious consideration, "we found the process too demanding," Park Jung-ho, vice chair and co-CEO of SK hynix, said at an annual shareholders meeting in Icheon, 52 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where the chipmaker's headquarters is located.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Commerce Department released new requirements for chipmakers seeking federal grants for building chip factories in the U.S.
Under the new guidelines, chipmakers need to fill in detailed projections for revenue and profit in an Excel-like tool to communicate with the U.S. Commerce Department before completing a full application.
Business information requested by Washington, such as the estimated number of wafers to be sold at a U.S. factory, is seen by many industry watchers as too sensitive.
SK hynix, the world's second-biggest memory chip maker after its local rival Samsung Electronics Co., plans to build a semiconductor packaging plant in the U.S. in the first half. The company has said it was considering applying for the federal grant.
Regardless of the federal money, the construction will proceed as planned, Park said.
"To be fair, we will build a semiconductor packaging, not manufacturing, plant, so we will be under less pressure" for filling in sensitive chip production data than other chipmakers might feel, he said.
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