Samsung Electronics plans to break ground in October 2026 on a KRW 1.3 trillion (roughly $884 million) expansion of its Onyang semiconductor packaging site in South Korea, targeting mass production of high-bandwidth memory in May 2029, DIGITIMES reported July 24 citing Korean industry sources.
Converting Onyang into a dedicated HBM back-end fab
The expansion converts Samsung's existing Onyang packaging line — the company's first packaging campus, opened 35 years ago — into a purpose-built HBM back-end factory. Samsung is also upgrading its Cheonan facility with HBM-compatible equipment, according to New Daily, aiming for monthly capacities of 231,000 units for Thermal Compression Bonding and 19,500 units for Hybrid Copper Bonding by year-end 2026. Samsung plans to transition its HBM stacking roadmap from TCB to HCB by 2029, aligned with next-generation HBM4 and HBM5 requirements.
Part of a $252 billion Chungcheong buildout
The Onyang groundbreaking is the concrete milestone in a broader 392 trillion-won ($252.5 billion) plan that Samsung Group and SK hynix unveiled on July 2 to build HBM fabs, NAND capacity and packaging plants across South Korea's Chungcheong region. Samsung Electronics alone committed 56 trillion won of the 140 trillion won Samsung Group total for a dedicated HBM fab and packaging facility. HBM packaging — rather than wafer output — has repeatedly been cited as the tighter constraint on how fast Nvidia- and AMD-class AI accelerators can ship.
Racing SK hynix and Micron for AI memory capacity
Samsung is closing on rivals. SK hynix said the same week it will invest 100 trillion won in Cheongju's new M17 NAND fab (breaking ground next year, on-line 2029) plus the P&T7 advanced packaging plant. Micron, meanwhile, broke ground earlier in July on its $9.3 billion HBM expansion in Hiroshima. Together, the three memory makers are racing to add tens of thousands of monthly HBM stacks before HBM4 volumes ramp in 2027.
Related coverage: SK hynix Ships 12-Layer HBM4E Samples, Tightening AI Memory Race, Micron Breaks Ground On $9.3B HBM Plant Expansion In Hiroshima, and Intel Ships First High-NA EUV Logic Chips With ASML On Panther Lake.
Reporting based on coverage from DIGITIMES, TrendForce, The Korea Herald and New Daily.