SK Hynix is reportedly looking to establish a low-power wafer factory for memory chip production as the Korean firm forecasts memory supply chain issues until 2028.

A report from Chinese site EEWorld claimed Hynix is outsourcing its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) manufacturing to external foundries using its wafer fab in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.

In operation since 2006, the fab currently produces around 40% of Hynix’s DRAM chips, focusing on older forms such as DDR3 and DDR4 while U.S. export restrictions continue to keep higher-end chips out of China.

According to EEWorld, SK Hynix is partnering with a South Korean fabless semiconductor design firm and aims to start manufacturing custom-designed DRAM chips as early as 2027.

The move comes as Hynix battles it out with Samsung for DRAM dominance as memory becomes a hot commodity to meet AI use case demand. Last week saw claims Samsung was to reclaim its status as the world’s leading DRAM provider from SK Hynix. The Korean giant has already raised prices of its DRAM wares by 60%, according to earlier reports.

In response, purported internal analysis from SK Hynix claims the company expects growth for commodity DRAM to be constrained through 2028, excluding HBM (high-bandwidth memory) and SOCAMM (small outline compression attached memory module), which it produces with its recently opened M15X fab in Cheongju, South Korea.

As reported by TweakTown, the company reportedly estimates server shares to increase 38% in 2025 to 53% by 2030. The PC market will take the biggest loss, with PC DRAM production increase expected to fall short of demand through the next three years as “supplier inventory levels are declining sharply,” limiting DRAM capacity growth.

Consumers, who have already faced bad news with Micron closing its consumer division this month, now have to contend with the possibility that Samsung is to halt production of its SATA SSD line, which, like all solid-state drives, relies on that other hot commodity in the AI race, NAND flash memory.

Enterprises also aren’t immune from the current bottlenecks, with Apple’s long-term agreements with both Samsung and Hynix apparently coming to an end, and the phone giant now reportedly paying premium prices for its memory fix.

Nvidia’s Rubin line of GPUs may also be impacted as SK Hynix will shift ramp up of its HBM4 chip offering in the third quarter of next year, instead of the second quarter as originally planned. The chip giant is apparently now relying on Samsung to get its next-gen chips into production, with reports from Friday suggesting Nvidia is in talks with Samsung to supply over 30% of its HBM4 needs.

While Korean companies can be reticent to comment on matters, Hynix provided considerable comment to Wccftech on Sunday, with a spokesperson stating: “Given that memory demand is increasing more sharply than previously anticipated, we are proactively securing ‘fab space’ and ‘production capacity’ through the establishment of advanced production infrastructure … This will enable us to efficiently respond to the growing demand for AI memory and evolving customer needs.”

Hynix’s optimism centers around its new M15X fab, as well as a new foundry set to open in Yongin, Korea, in 2027.