^*SK hynix initially began as Hyundai Electronics Co., Ltd in 1983, but the company re-branded itself as SK hynix Inc. after joining SK Group in 2012.

At the site of the 10^th anniversary event, our newsroom looked back on the journey SK hynix has taken so far and predicted its future path through the messages delivered by its leaders.

The growth story of SK hynix since 2012: Challenges & Innovations

The commemorative ceremony held under the theme of “Past 10 Years We Built Together & Next 100 Years We Will Build Together” took place in a hybrid form that combined on-site and online attendance to comply with Covid-19 prevention rules. Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and co-CEO, Kwak Noh-Jung, President and co-CEO, Kevin (Jongwon) Noh, President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and other SK hynix executives attended the site along with the winners of SK hynix Awards while the members of overseas sites including the US, Wuxi and Chongqing in China, as well as those of Junior Board and Leader Board joined remotely. The event was live streamed online for interactive communication with all members of SK hynix.

At the ceremony, SK hynix members and stakeholders looked back on the past 10 years and shared the vision for the next 100 years to be built together. Congratulatory messages from SK hynix’s leaders and various stakeholders including customers, partners, and communities were delivered before opening the main event of the ceremony.

“Overcoming the uncertainty 10 years ago, SK hynix has now grown into one of the top global chipmakers,” said Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group in a video message. “Its members who made SK hynix as we know today possible are like stars in my life.” Chairman Chey shared his thoughts on the past decade in his congratulatory message.

Figure 1. Changes of SK hynix over the last 10 years (as of Dec. 31, 2021)

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SK hynix was formerly known as Hynix Semiconductor Inc. from March 2001 until it renamed and launched as SK hynix Inc. on March 26, 2012, officially taking the first step of the 10-year journey. The memory chipmaker, which had a market cap of only 13 trillion won at that time, has grown into a global company with a market cap of almost 100 trillion won in 10 years.

Its revenue and operating profit have also dramatically grown over the years. SK hynix recorded 43 trillion won in revenue and 12.4 trillion won in operating profit last year. The memory chipmaker which used to go through the cycle of profit and loss has now become a flagship affiliate of SK Group with operating profit of over 10 trillion won per year.

The number of jobs created by SK hynix has continued to increase over the last decade. Moreover, the number of SK hynix employees is expected to further increase as it plans to hire at a large scale this year even though the job market is frozen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aggressive investment has been the driving force behind the remarkable growth of SK hynix. SK Group has invested tens of trillions won in equipment and facilities since the acquisition of SK hynix. It constructed M14 fab in 2015, and then M15 fab in 2018 and completed the construction of M16 at Icheon Campus in February 2021. Notably, SK hynix introduced EUV process to M16 fab for the first time of its history, providing the chipmaker with the foundation to produce the next generation DRAM based on cutting-edge infrastructure.

In addition, a large-scale semiconductor cluster construction project is currently underway in Yongin, South Korea, where SK hynix plans to build four semiconductor fabs at a cost of 120 trillion won on a site of about 4.47 million square meter. Along with SK hynix, more than 50 domestic and foreign semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment suppliers are expected to move into the Yongin semiconductor cluster.

SK hynix has also continued to make strategic investments over the last decade to maintain its leadership in the global chip market. It has been active in investment to gain strong competitiveness in technology and sustainable foundation as a way to further cement its status as an industry leader. For instance, the company made equity investment in Kioxia (formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corporation) in 2017 and announced the acquisition of Key Foundry, an 8-inch wafer foundry manufacturer in October last year with an eye on the potential of the foundry market.

SK hynix recently announced a big deal of acquiring NAND and SSD business from Intel. It expects the deal will dramatically boost its competitiveness in NAND flash business. “The acquisition presents us an opportunity to take our NAND flash business to the global top tier as well as an opportunity to solidify our position as a global leading tech company,” said Vice Chairman Park after the announcement of the deal.

Figure 2. A look back on the past 10 years of SK hynix

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The 2021 SK hynix Awards ceremony, which awards those who contributed remarkably to the mid- to long-term achievements at SK hynix, also took place on this day.

“Our evolution as a solution provider and the goal of achieving a family-friendly corporate culture will realize the vision of next 100 years”

Image 3. Vice Chairman Park speaking at the 10th anniversary ceremony

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The future vision and plan of SK hynix was shared too at the ceremony under the title of “Next 100 Years We Will Build Together.”

Vice Chairman Park, who led the acquisition of Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and has been serving as SK hynix co-CEO since last year, presented a future vision that will drive the company to “leap beyond the past decade and move toward a 100-Year Global top tier Company.”

Image 4. Vice Chairman Park speaking at the 10th anniversary ceremony

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Vice Chairman Park put a special emphasis on hyper collaboration that breaks conventional boundaries and evolution toward a solution provider. “We are willing to work together with any partners – if they are competitive, transcending the boundaries of nations and industries to drive growth,” said Mr. Park. “The R&D center to be built in the US will be a place where we collaborate with global ICT leaders.” Last year, the chipmaker announced that it will invest over 1 trillion won to build R&D center for open innovation in the western US.

“Confining us to the framework of being a semiconductor memory maker limits our ability to enhance corporate value,” he continued. “Going forward, we must go beyond developing value-added products and evolve into a solution provider which finds customers’ pain points and solves them proactively.”

He also stressed that “by establishing a family-friendly corporate culture, SK hynix will become a global top-tier company with our members and their families together.” Programs with specific thematic items such as ‘becoming a company world’s best of best can be proud of,’ ‘building family-friendly corporate culture,’ and ‘flexible working and the innovation at our working environment’ will be implemented to elevate the culture of the company, according to Mr. Park.

The post Past 10 Years We Built Together & Next 100 Years We Will Build Together : 10th Anniversary of SK hynix first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

• The company held an on/offline event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of joining SK Group.
• “SK hynix has grown into one of the top global chipmakers,” said Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group in his congratulatory message.
• “SK hynix seeks to transform into a company which prioritize the happiness of its members and their family,” said Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and co-CEO of SK hynix.

Figure 1. Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and co-CEO at SK hynix Speaking during the 10th Anniversary Ceremony

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Seoul, March 31, 2022

On March 31^st KST, SK hynix Inc. (or ‘the Company,’ www.skhynix.com)held an event to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of its launch at its headquarters in Icheon, South Korea. 10 years ago on March 26, 2012, SK hynix renamed from ^*Hynix Semiconductor and was launched as an affiliate of SK Group.

^*SK hynix was formerly known as Hynix Semiconductor Inc. from March 2001, but the company re-branded itself as SK hynix Inc. on March 26, 2012 after joining SK Group.

The ceremony held under the theme of “Past 10 Years We Built Together & Next 100 Years We Will Build Together” took place in a hybrid form that combined on-site and online attendance to comply with Covid-19 prevention rules. About 50 people including Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and co-CEO, Kwak Noh-Jung, President and co-CEO, and Kevin (Jongwon) Noh, President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at SK hynix attended on site while the rest of its members joined remotely for the interactive event.

“Overcoming the uncertainty 10 years ago, SK hynix has now grown into one of the top global chipmakers,” said Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group in a video message. “Its members who made SK hynix as we know today possible are like stars in my life.” Chairman Chey shared his thoughts on the past decade in his congratulatory message.

Vice Chairman Park presented “the evolution into a Solution Provider with hyper collaboration that breaks conventional boundaries for cooperation” as the company’s vision for future growth. “We are willing to work together with any partners – if they are competitive, transcending the boundaries of nations and industries to drive growth,” said Mr. Park. “The R&D center to be built in the US will be a place where we collaborate with global ICT leaders.”

Last year, the chipmaker announced that it will invest over 1 trillion won to build R&D center for open innovation in the western US.

“Confining us to the framework of being a semiconductor memory maker limits our ability to enhance corporate value,” he continued. “Going forward, we must go beyond developing value-added products and evolve into a solution provider which finds customers’ pain points and solves them proactively.”

Vice Chairman Park also stressed that “by establishing a family-friendly corporate culture, SK hynix will become a global top-tier company with our members and their families together.”

◆ A company world’s best of best can be proud of

SK hynix sets out to promote Career Growth Program (CGP), encourage supports for master’s and doctorate programs, expand exchanges among global sites, and establish new programs linked to overseas companies and universities including Stanford. In addition, SK hynix aims to expand its “Technology Experts Program”, a program which promotes outstanding engineers and allows them to work beyond the regular retirement age, to the equipment experts in the field.

At the same time, the chipmaker intends to expand partnership with its internal educational institute SK hynix University (SKHU), as well as with domestic and overseas universities to foster talents in semiconductor ecosystem.

◆ Building family-friendly corporate culture

With a top-priority on the happiness of its members and their families, SK hynix sets out to launch initiatives designed to help its members strike a balance between work and life. A three-month leave to take care of children entering elementary school, expansion of the period of shortened working hours during pregnancy, benefits/leave policies for infertility treatment will be implemented.

The company plans to make itself a family-friendly company and contribute to solving social issues such as the low birth rate and career interruption of female talents.

◆ Flexible working and the innovation at our working environment

The company decided to streamline working hours and reduce constraints on workspace to innovate the way people work. To this end, it will implement ‘Happy Friday’ program starting from April 2022. Those who have worked 80 hours or more for the first two weeks of each month can take one day off on the third Friday once a month without using the days of leave originally given to them.

In addition, the company is considering ‘Global Work from Anywhere’ system that provides its members with a working environment without time and space constraints. The system will help members reduce disruption to their career due to such as the relocation of their family member while enabling the company to avoid loss of talents and improve a collaborative environment among global sites.

Further decisions were also made by the company including the introduction of limousine commuter buses, significant improvement to the in-house cafeteria meals, while transforming the cafeterias into complex cultural spaces.

The 10^th anniversary event was packed with various programs which included messages delivered by Chairman Chey and Vice Chairman Park, congratulatory videos from Icheon community and SK hynix Award 2021 ceremony.

About SK hynix Inc.

SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Korea, is the world’s top tier semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (“DRAM”), Flash memory chips (“NAND Flash”) and CMOS Image Sensors (“CIS”) for a wide range of distinguished customers globally. The Company’s shares are traded on the Korea Exchange, and the Global Depository shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Further information about SK hynix is available at www.skhynix.com, news.skhynix.com.

Media Contact

SK hynix Inc.
Global Public Relations

Technical Leader
Jaehwan Kevin Kim
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

Technical Leader
Kanga Kong
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

The post On the 10th Anniversary of SK hynix Launch, Vice Chairman Park Pledges to Build Next 100 Years Together first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.