The acquisition of key foundry by SK Hynix, a South Korean chip manufacturer, was nearly completed more than seven months after the announcement Key foundry recently disclosed in a letter to the customer that the procedure for SK Hynix to acquire them is nearly completed. After the acquisition, the business cooperation and OEM services between the customer and key foundry will continue.
Key foundry is a semiconductor foundry focusing on analog chips. They have a foundry with a monthly capacity of 90000 8-inch wafers in Qingzhou, Zhongqing North Road, South Korea. This factory is located in the park of piling SK Hynix in Qingzhou.
Sk Hynix is famous for its memory chips. It is the second largest memory chip supplier in Korea after Samsung Electronics. However, they also have a wafer foundry business. Its foundry business department has a foundry factory in Wuxi with a monthly capacity of about 100000 8-inch wafers.
After the acquisition of key foundry with a monthly capacity of 90000 wafers, the capacity of SK Hynix's OEM business will be close to 200000 8-inch wafers, nearly double the capacity before SK Hynix's acquisition.
Foreign media reported that SK Hynix's acquisition of key foundry needs to be approved by the regulatory authorities of South Korea, the United States, the European Union and other relevant countries. The South Korean Fair Trade Commission approved the acquisition in March this year, but it is not clear whether other relevant regulatory authorities have also approved it.
Foreign media reported that, unlike NVIDIA's acquisition of arm, which can affect the whole chip field, SK Hynix's acquisition of key foundry will not have a great impact on relevant fields. Sk Hynix OEM business unit and key foundry have a market share of only 5% in the OEM field. At present, key foundry does not have a 12 inch wafer factory, which has a limited impact on external manufacturers.