Past 10 Years We Built Together & Next 100 Years We Will Build Together : 10th Anniversary of SK hynix

SK hynix celebrated its 10^th anniversary in March 2022, holding a commemorative event under the theme of “Past 10 Years We Built Together & Next 100 Years We Will Build Together” at its headquarters in Icheon, South Korea on March 31^st KST. Since its ^*launch in 2012 under the name of SK hynix, the company fueled by aggressive investment has kept innovating its way to becoming a first-class technology company that leads the global ICT industry. Recently, the company made the largest M&A ever in its history with the announcement of acquiring Intel’s NAND and SSD business, getting ready to take another leap forward.

^*SK hynix initially began as Hyundai Electronics Co., Ltd in 1983, but the company re-branded itself as SK hynix Inc. after joining SK Group in 2012.

At the site of the 10^th anniversary event, our newsroom looked back on the journey SK hynix has taken so far and predicted its future path through the messages delivered by its leaders.

The growth story of SK hynix since 2012: Challenges & Innovations

The commemorative ceremony held under the theme of “Past 10 Years We Built Together & Next 100 Years We Will Build Together” took place in a hybrid form that combined on-site and online attendance to comply with Covid-19 prevention rules. Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and co-CEO, Kwak Noh-Jung, President and co-CEO, Kevin (Jongwon) Noh, President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and other SK hynix executives attended the site along with the winners of SK hynix Awards while the members of overseas sites including the US, Wuxi and Chongqing in China, as well as those of Junior Board and Leader Board joined remotely. The event was live streamed online for interactive communication with all members of SK hynix.

At the ceremony, SK hynix members and stakeholders looked back on the past 10 years and shared the vision for the next 100 years to be built together. Congratulatory messages from SK hynix’s leaders and various stakeholders including customers, partners, and communities were delivered before opening the main event of the ceremony.

“Overcoming the uncertainty 10 years ago, SK hynix has now grown into one of the top global chipmakers,” said Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group in a video message. “Its members who made SK hynix as we know today possible are like stars in my life.” Chairman Chey shared his thoughts on the past decade in his congratulatory message.

Figure 1. Changes of SK hynix over the last 10 years (as of Dec. 31, 2021)

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SK hynix was formerly known as Hynix Semiconductor Inc. from March 2001 until it renamed and launched as SK hynix Inc. on March 26, 2012, officially taking the first step of the 10-year journey. The memory chipmaker, which had a market cap of only 13 trillion won at that time, has grown into a global company with a market cap of almost 100 trillion won in 10 years.

Its revenue and operating profit have also dramatically grown over the years. SK hynix recorded 43 trillion won in revenue and 12.4 trillion won in operating profit last year. The memory chipmaker which used to go through the cycle of profit and loss has now become a flagship affiliate of SK Group with operating profit of over 10 trillion won per year.

The number of jobs created by SK hynix has continued to increase over the last decade. Moreover, the number of SK hynix employees is expected to further increase as it plans to hire at a large scale this year even though the job market is frozen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aggressive investment has been the driving force behind the remarkable growth of SK hynix. SK Group has invested tens of trillions won in equipment and facilities since the acquisition of SK hynix. It constructed M14 fab in 2015, and then M15 fab in 2018 and completed the construction of M16 at Icheon Campus in February 2021. Notably, SK hynix introduced EUV process to M16 fab for the first time of its history, providing the chipmaker with the foundation to produce the next generation DRAM based on cutting-edge infrastructure.

In addition, a large-scale semiconductor cluster construction project is currently underway in Yongin, South Korea, where SK hynix plans to build four semiconductor fabs at a cost of 120 trillion won on a site of about 4.47 million square meter. Along with SK hynix, more than 50 domestic and foreign semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment suppliers are expected to move into the Yongin semiconductor cluster.

SK hynix has also continued to make strategic investments over the last decade to maintain its leadership in the global chip market. It has been active in investment to gain strong competitiveness in technology and sustainable foundation as a way to further cement its status as an industry leader. For instance, the company made equity investment in Kioxia (formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corporation) in 2017 and announced the acquisition of Key Foundry, an 8-inch wafer foundry manufacturer in October last year with an eye on the potential of the foundry market.

SK hynix recently announced a big deal of acquiring NAND and SSD business from Intel. It expects the deal will dramatically boost its competitiveness in NAND flash business. “The acquisition presents us an opportunity to take our NAND flash business to the global top tier as well as an opportunity to solidify our position as a global leading tech company,” said Vice Chairman Park after the announcement of the deal.

Figure 2. A look back on the past 10 years of SK hynix

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The 2021 SK hynix Awards ceremony, which awards those who contributed remarkably to the mid- to long-term achievements at SK hynix, also took place on this day.

“Our evolution as a solution provider and the goal of achieving a family-friendly corporate culture will realize the vision of next 100 years”

Image 3. Vice Chairman Park speaking at the 10th anniversary ceremony

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The future vision and plan of SK hynix was shared too at the ceremony under the title of “Next 100 Years We Will Build Together.”

Vice Chairman Park, who led the acquisition of Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and has been serving as SK hynix co-CEO since last year, presented a future vision that will drive the company to “leap beyond the past decade and move toward a 100-Year Global top tier Company.”

Image 4. Vice Chairman Park speaking at the 10th anniversary ceremony

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Vice Chairman Park put a special emphasis on hyper collaboration that breaks conventional boundaries and evolution toward a solution provider. “We are willing to work together with any partners – if they are competitive, transcending the boundaries of nations and industries to drive growth,” said Mr. Park. “The R&D center to be built in the US will be a place where we collaborate with global ICT leaders.” Last year, the chipmaker announced that it will invest over 1 trillion won to build R&D center for open innovation in the western US.

“Confining us to the framework of being a semiconductor memory maker limits our ability to enhance corporate value,” he continued. “Going forward, we must go beyond developing value-added products and evolve into a solution provider which finds customers’ pain points and solves them proactively.”

He also stressed that “by establishing a family-friendly corporate culture, SK hynix will become a global top-tier company with our members and their families together.” Programs with specific thematic items such as ‘becoming a company world’s best of best can be proud of,’ ‘building family-friendly corporate culture,’ and ‘flexible working and the innovation at our working environment’ will be implemented to elevate the culture of the company, according to Mr. Park.