SK hynix Inc. is a South Korean supplier of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips. Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker (after Samsung Electronics) and the world's third-largest semiconductor company. Founded as Hyundai Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd. in 1983 and known as Hyundai Electronics, the company has manufacturing sites in Korea, the United States, mainland China and Taiwan. In 2012, when SK Telecom became its major shareholder, Hynix merged with SK Group (the third largest conglomerate in South Korea).
The company's major customers include Microsoft, Apple, Asus, Dell, MSI, HP Inc., and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (formerly Hewlett-Packard). Other products that use Hynix memory include DVD players, cellular phones, set-top boxes, personal digital assistants, networking equipment, and hard disk drives.
History
1949: Founded as Gukdo construction. 1983: Incorporated and renamed as Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd. 1985: Started mass production of 256K DRAM under a licensing agreement with U.S. company Vitelic Corporation. 1986: The Hyundai-manufactured Blue Chip PC was sold in discount and toy stores throughout the US. It is one of the earliest PC clones marketed toward consumers instead of business 1993: Took over Maxtor (US HDD main factory) 1996: Initial public offering on the Korea Stock Exchange 1999: Merged with LG Semiconductor Co., Ltd (founded in 1979), then a division of LG Electronics. 2000: Spun off Hyundai Image Quest, Hyundai Autonet and Hyundai Calibration & Certification Technologies 2001: Changed the company name to Hynix Semiconductor Inc. (from Hyundai Electronics); spun off Hyundai Syscomm, Hyundai CuriTel, and Hyundai Networks; completed spin-off from Hyundai Group 2002: Sold HYDIS, TFT-LCD Business Unit 2004: Signed System IC Business Transfer Agreement with System Semiconductor 2005: Emerged from Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act ahead of schedule. Fined US$185M for involvement in DRAM price fixing cartel 2006: Posted record the highest revenues since foundationEstablished global manufacturing network with complete construction of Hynix-ST Semiconductor Inc.Hynix's wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary in China 2007: Appointed Jong-Kap Kim as the new Chairman & CEO 2009: Company put up for sale by its lenders after it defaulted on loans and a subsequent debt-equity swap 2010: Fine of €51.47 million for illegally fixing prices with eight other memory chip makers.In January 2010, Hynix Semiconductor Inc was put up for sale in an auction valued at close to $3 billion.On 31 August 2010, HP announced collaboration with Hynix to bring memristor to high volume manufacturing step (targeted for 2013). 2012: SK Group, the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea, acquired a 21.05% stake in Hynix. 2013: Fab 1 and Fab 2 in China both suffered a massive fire which took the factories offline temporarily. 2014: SK hynix acquired the firmware division of Softeq Development FLLC to make it part of its global R&D network alongside Italy-based Ideaflash S.r.l, Link_A_Media Devices and Violin Memory in the US, and Taiwanese Innostor Technology. 2020: Hynix announced an agreement to purchase Intel's NAND business for $9 billion, which closed in 2021. This spinoff created a new company, Solidigm, fully owned by SK Hynix.
Products
Hynix produces a variety of semiconductor memories, including: Computing memory Consumer and network memory Graphics memory Mobile memory NAND flash memory CMOS image sensors Solid-state drives (SSDs)