THE CRUNCH
Solidigm, the American flash memory subsidiary of SK hynix, is reportedly in talks with the US Commerce Department about investing $45 billion in a new plant in the United States. Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources, that there is a condition attached: Solidigm wants approval to export equipment to upgrade its existing NAND factory in Dalian, China, and has purportedly told officials those upgrades would let the Chinese plant help finance the US project. It is not yet clear how the proposal was received, or whether the Commerce Department is inclined to agree.
The ask runs directly against US export controls, which restrict shipping advanced manufacturing equipment to China on national security grounds. Permission is far from guaranteed, and similar restrictions on high-end AI components have already produced a black market: a 2025 report claimed around $1 billion worth of Nvidia AI chips had been smuggled into China, and Nvidia Blackwell Ultra B300 GPUs were recently reported in China Telecom data centres with no explanation of how they arrived.
According to the report, Solidigm has also allegedly suggested its total investment in US manufacturing could eventually reach $100 billion, with construction in New York pencilled in for 2027. The company's latest earnings call made no mention of the Dalian plant or a US investment, though it did warn that memory shortages are set to last through 2030.