Apple Supplier SK Hynix’s US-based subsidiary Solidigm is weighing a second American factory just two days after news broke of the company’s talks with Intel. This one would make NAND flash memory, and upstate New York has emerged as the leading site.
According to a report from Reuters, three people familiar with the discussions said no final agreement has been reached yet. SK Hynix told Reuters that Solidigm is reviewing options to strengthen its business but has not confirmed specific plans.
This Is a Separate Deal From SK Hynix’s Talks With Intel
SK Hynix has already been in exploratory talks with Intel about producing memory chips at Intel’s Ohio facility, a deal that would cover DRAM rather than NAND. The Solidigm factory under consideration is a completely separate project aimed at a different kind of chip.
Solidigm currently makes all of its NAND flash memory at a single fab in Dalian, China. A US plant would end that single-site dependence and reduce exposure to potential US tariffs and export restrictions on chipmaking equipment headed to China. SK Hynix does have one other confirmed US project already underway, an advanced packaging plant in Indiana that broke ground on August 27, set to supply high-bandwidth memory starting in the second half of 2029.
Why Apple’s Memory Supply Chain Keeps Moving Toward the US
Two forces are pushing this decision, the Trump administration has been pressing chipmakers to build more manufacturing capacity inside the US, and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has floated tariffs as high as 100 percent for South Korean and Taiwanese firms that don’t expand their US output. At the same time, massive AI data center investment has driven a global memory chip shortage that shows no sign of easing.
Chinese competitors are moving fast in the other direction. Reuters reported the same day that Chinese chipmaker CXMT plans to set up a new NAND flash R&D production line in Beijing, entering a market currently dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. Building a US fab costs considerably more than building one in South Korea, and a plant this size takes years to bring online, so any decision Solidigm makes now would not add real capacity until well into the back half of the decade.
Our Take
Apple doesn’t get named directly in Reuters’ reporting on Solidigm’s plans, but it sits close enough to this story to matter. Apple relies on SK Hynix for a meaningful share of the memory in its devices, and every one of these US expansion moves, Indiana, the Intel Ohio talks, and now a possible New York NAND plant, reduces how much of that supply chain sits inside China. Whether trading that exposure for more US tariff and trade policy risk works out better for Apple over the next few years is still an open question.
