Hanmi Semiconductor Bets on AI Supercycle with Largest-Ever Plant Construction

Hanmi Semiconductor is embarking on the construction of its largest production facility to date, preparing for the explosive growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market. As global memory manufacturers accelerate their race to expand High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) capacity, the company is moving to preemptively secure its core equipment supply chain.

Hanmi Semiconductor announced through a regulatory filing on the 20th that it is pursuing the acquisition of a site for Plant 8 in Incheon's Juan district, spanning over 5,000 pyeong (approximately 16,529 square meters). The company explained that it decided to expand production facilities based on the assessment that a semiconductor equipment supply shortage could emerge from 2027 due to expanding AI semiconductor investments. Plant 8 is planned to be built near the currently under-construction Plant 7.

Kwak Dong-shin, Vice Chairman and CEO of Hanmi Semiconductor, recently stated in a media interview, "Plant 8 will be more than six times the size of Plant 7. Once the plan materializes, it will become the company's largest production facility since its founding."

Hanmi Semiconductor's flagship product, the TC Bonder, is critical equipment used to precisely bond multiple layers of HBM chips. As the AI semiconductor market—driven primarily by Nvidia—experiences rapid growth, HBM investments by global memory manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), SK Hynix (000660.KS), and Micron Technology (MU) are expanding significantly. Consequently, demand for TC Bonders is expected to continue rising steadily.

This outlook coincides with a broader supply crunch across the global semiconductor industry. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recently stated the group would "build fabs wherever possible," and SK Hynix is currently scouting locations for a new memory production fab in the United States. Samsung Electronics has moved up the completion target for the first fab at its Yongin semiconductor cluster in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province by two years to October 2029, while its Pyeongtaek P4 plant is set to commence full operations within this year. Micron is also accelerating its timeline, advancing the concrete pouring schedule for its New York fab.

China's CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) also plans to raise approximately 66.6 billion yuan (approximately $9.8 billion) through a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to fund the development and production capacity expansion of next-generation memory products such as DDR5 and HBM3. CXMT's production capacity is projected to expand from the current 320,000 wafers per month (based on 300mm wafers) to 420,000 wafers by 2027.

Alongside expanding production capacity, Hanmi Semiconductor is accelerating the development of next-generation equipment. The company plans to unveil a second-generation hybrid bonder prototype by the end of this year and operate a dedicated hybrid bonder factory in the first half of next year. Wide TC Bonders designed for HBM5 and HBM6 are also scheduled for sequential release.

Furthermore, the company plans to establish a U.S. subsidiary in the second half of this year to strengthen local sales and customer support. The corporate value enhancement plan outlines a mid- to long-term blueprint for responding to AI semiconductor market growth, encompassing production capacity expansion, next-generation equipment development, and overseas market penetration.

The push for Plant 8 is interpreted as a strategic move to elevate Hanmi Semiconductor's standing within the global AI semiconductor supply chain, going beyond simple capacity expansion. As capital expenditure by upstream memory manufacturers reaches record highs, the preemptive securing of production capacity by downstream equipment suppliers is emerging as a new competitive advantage.