SEOUL, Sept. 18, 2026 — SK hynix is weighing a potentially significant expansion of its U.S. semiconductor footprint, with its U.S.-based subsidiary Solidigm considering the construction of a NAND flash memory factory in America, according to three people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.
Upstate New York has emerged as a leading candidate for the potential site, although the project remains under review and no final decision has been made.
If eventually approved, the facility would give Solidigm its first NAND manufacturing base in the United States and would add another layer to SK hynix’s rapidly expanding American semiconductor operations.
Why this matters: AI is creating a new storage crunch
The possible factory comes as the global semiconductor industry faces a surge in demand for storage infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence.
AI data centers do not only require powerful GPUs and high-bandwidth memory. They also need enormous amounts of high-performance storage to handle the data generated, processed and retrieved by increasingly sophisticated AI systems.
Solidigm specializes in enterprise solid-state drives, or eSSDs, which are increasingly important in data-center infrastructure.
Industry researcher TrendForce reported that global enterprise SSD revenue reached $18.46 billion in the first quarter of 2026, an 86.1% increase from the previous quarter. The research firm also said supply-demand conditions were exceptionally tight, with major suppliers facing historically low inventory levels.
That surge gives NAND manufacturers a powerful incentive to expand capacity while demand for AI infrastructure continues to grow.
Solidigm itself has increasingly positioned storage as a critical component of AI infrastructure. The company says its products are designed for data-center and edge-AI applications, while recent company announcements have highlighted the growing role of storage as AI workloads move from training toward inference and more data-intensive applications.
Why New York is suddenly in the spotlight
Reuters reported that upstate New York is being considered as a leading location for the potential NAND facility.
However, the location has not been finalized.
The discussions also come amid a broader push to expand semiconductor manufacturing inside the United States and reduce reliance on overseas production for strategically important technologies.
A U.S. production base could also bring Solidigm closer to major American technology customers while reducing exposure to potential trade restrictions, tariffs and geopolitical disruptions affecting semiconductor supply chains. Reuters reported that those considerations are part of the broader strategic backdrop surrounding the review.
At the same time, manufacturing semiconductors in the United States can be substantially more expensive than producing them in established Asian manufacturing hubs. That means any investment decision would have to balance domestic manufacturing objectives against production economics.
Solidigm’s unusual position: U.S.-based company, China manufacturing
Solidigm is a U.S.-based company headquartered in California, but its manufacturing footprint has historically been closely tied to the NAND operations it inherited from Intel.
SK hynix created Solidigm after acquiring Intel’s NAND and SSD business. The original transaction was valued at $9 billion, and included Intel’s Dalian NAND manufacturing facility in China.
Solidigm’s current corporate information lists Dalian among its global locations, alongside its U.S. operations and other international sites.
That makes a potential U.S. NAND factory strategically significant: it would not simply expand production capacity, but could also diversify where Solidigm manufactures NAND memory.
The company is also moving ahead with additional capacity in China. Industry reports have said investment in a second Dalian facility has resumed, with mass production targeted for 2027.
This is bigger than one factory
The potential Solidigm project is arriving alongside several other major SK hynix moves in the United States.
In August, SK hynix said it planned to begin volume production of next-generation HBM4E memory at its Indiana facility in the third quarter of 2029.
The more than $4 billion Indiana project is being developed around advanced packaging and research and development for AI-related memory technologies. SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung also said the company expects the current memory shortage to persist through the end of 2030.
That project is different from the proposed Solidigm NAND factory.
HBM, or high-bandwidth memory, is primarily used alongside advanced processors in AI and high-performance computing systems. NAND flash, meanwhile, is the underlying non-volatile storage technology used in SSDs and other storage products.
Together, the projects illustrate how SK hynix is expanding its U.S. presence across multiple layers of the AI semiconductor and data-storage ecosystem.
Another U.S. production route is also being discussed
The possible Solidigm factory is not the only U.S. manufacturing option under consideration by SK hynix.
Reuters reported earlier this week that SK hynix is in talks with Intel about potentially manufacturing memory chips at an Intel facility in the United States.
That proposal is separate from the Solidigm NAND factory being considered, according to Reuters.
The distinction is important.
Rather than representing a single confirmed factory project, SK hynix appears to be examining several ways to increase its U.S. manufacturing and technology presence as demand for AI infrastructure accelerates.
Solidigm is also being reshaped around AI
The potential factory comes during a broader strategic transition for Solidigm.
In January, SK hynix announced plans to establish a U.S.-based AI company by restructuring Solidigm, with up to $10 billion in funding intended to support AI-related opportunities and data-center solutions.
Under that restructuring plan, Solidigm’s existing operations would be transferred to a new subsidiary while the broader U.S. AI organization would become part of SK hynix’s strategy for developing AI-related businesses.
Solidigm has continued expanding its U.S. research capabilities as well. In April, the company said it had surpassed its original $100 million commitment for its Greater Sacramento development and had added nearly 100 NAND tools to its research and development facilities.
What happens next?
For now, the most important word is “considering.”
There is no confirmed construction date, final site, announced investment amount or guaranteed production schedule for the proposed U.S. NAND factory.
SK hynix has said it is reviewing various options to strengthen competitiveness, but that nothing has been finalized.
That leaves several major questions unanswered: How much would a U.S. NAND fab cost? Would federal or state incentives help offset higher manufacturing expenses? Would upstate New York ultimately be selected? And how quickly could such a facility begin producing NAND chips if approved?
Those answers could determine whether today’s reported proposal becomes one of the most significant expansions of NAND manufacturing capacity on U.S. soil — or remains only an option under consideration.
For now, one thing is clear: the AI boom is no longer just a race for faster processors. The battle is increasingly moving into memory and storage — and SK hynix is positioning itself accordingly.
