SK Chairman Warns Wafer Shortage to Persist Until 2030

SK Group Chairman Chey Taewon warned on Monday that a global shortage of semiconductor wafers will persist until 2030, fueled by surging demand for high-bandwidth memory chips essential to artificial intelligence applications. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Nvidia's GTC developer conference in San Jose, California, Chey highlighted that supply lags demand by more than 20 percent, creating structural constraints in the industry.

The shortage stems from the intense need for wafers in producing high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, which powers graphics processing units for AI workloads. "AI actually wants to have a lot of HBM, and once you make the HBM...we have to use a lot of wafers," Chey said. He explained that expanding wafer capacity requires at least four to five years, a timeline echoed by industry analysts who note that building new semiconductor fabrication plants typically takes two to three years or longer. Despite investments by major players like SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron Technology to increase production, Chey predicted the shortfall will endure through the decade.

SK Hynix, a key supplier of HBM to Nvidia, holds the top position in that market with a 57...