Solidigm, the U.S. arm of South Korean chipmaker SK hynix, is weighing construction of a NAND flash memory factory somewhere in the United States, and upstate New York has emerged as a leading candidate for the site. No agreement has been reached, and key details of any potential project remain under discussion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company is considering the plant as demand for enterprise solid-state drives explodes alongside the spread of artificial-intelligence data centers, according to Reuters. NAND flash memory is the storage technology found in phones, computers and data centers, and a surge of AI-related investment has helped fuel a global shortage of memory chips, as Korea JoongAng Daily reported. Global NAND revenue jumped 70% in the second quarter compared with the prior quarter, while prices for the chips climbed 55% over the same stretch, according to Counterpoint Research figures cited by Seoul Economic Daily.
Solidigm currently runs its only NAND production facility in Dalian, China, keeping just a headquarters and a research and development center on U.S. soil, the outlet's report noted. A domestic plant would cut the company's dependence on that single Chinese factory and could offer some insulation from potential U.S. tariffs or restrictions on exporting chipmaking equipment to China, per the same Reuters report. The proposed New York project is described as separate from SK hynix's ongoing, exploratory discussions about leasing space at Intel's Ohio facility to produce memory chips, a possibility first detailed by Korea JoongAng Daily.
Pressure From Washington Looms Over the Decision
The timing is no accident. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has threatened tariffs of up to 100% on South Korean and Taiwanese companies that don't commit to expanding production inside the United States, according to Reuters. That kind of pressure from the Trump administration to bring semiconductor manufacturing home has become a backdrop for chipmakers across the industry, the Korea JoongAng Daily report noted.
Solidigm, for its part, has been circumspect about its plans. The company said it regularly evaluates strategic alternatives but that no decision on any specific course of action has been made, according to Reuters.
New York's Incentive Pitch and a Busy Chip Corridor
New York State has positioned itself as a magnet for this kind of investment through its Green CHIPS program, which offers up to $10 billion in incentives for environmentally friendly semiconductor manufacturing and supply-chain projects, according to the Empire State Development program description. The state's push for chip manufacturing isn't limited to the Solidigm speculation, either. Earlier this month, GlobalFoundries was selected to operate two new semiconductor fabs at its existing Malta, New York, site under a U.S.-Japan initiative that could provide up to $21 billion in funding, the company announced in a release posted to GlobalFoundries' investor relations site.
The first Malta fab alone is expected to draw roughly $10 billion in investment and come online in 2029, per that same release. GlobalFoundries projects the Malta expansion will generate about 27,000 construction and ecosystem jobs along with more than 1,000 high-skilled manufacturing positions across New York's Capital Region. SK hynix, meanwhile, is separately investing more than $4 billion in an advanced packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, Seoul Economic Daily reported, underscoring how the Korean chipmaker is spreading its U.S. manufacturing bets across multiple states even as the Solidigm New York question remains unresolved.
Whether that question gets answered — and where any eventual Solidigm plant would actually be built — is still very much up in the air. The dossier of verified reporting on this story identifies upstate New York only as a leading candidate region, not a confirmed or finalized site, and no investment amount, construction schedule, job figures or financing package tied to a specific project have been established. For now, the company's own public posture is that no agreement has been reached and no decision has been made, leaving the next move to unfold in the weeks ahead.
