China's vice premier said Friday that China will handle its antitrust probe into Samsung Electronics and SK hynix according to a fair procedure and in line with its laws, South Korea's finance ministry said.

SK Hynix said it expected demand for DRAM chips to recover later this year, with new smartphones adopting high-density chips.

South Korea's SK Hynix is looking at buying part of logic chip maker MagnaChip Semiconductor.

SK hynix announced Thursday it had completed the expansion of a current DRAM production line in Wuxi, China.

SK hynix on Thursday unveiled a 1.2 trillion-won (US$1.05 billion) support plan for subcontracting firms and their R&D projects.

South Korea's SK Hynix on Thursday said it would spend $107 billion building four factories.

SK Hynix has become the 14th company in the world and the first in South Korea to obtain international Zero Waste to Landfill certification.

SK hynix may ultimately expand into the non-memory semiconductor market by tapping into an emerging market for a variety of system-on-chips for autonomous driving.

The M16 production line, located in Icheon, 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul, will be built on a 53,000-square meter lot.

SK Group on Thursday appointed Lee Seok-hee as the CEO of SK hynix in its annual reshuffle, alongside new leaders named for SK Gas, SK Engineering & Construction and SK Global Chemical.

Korea isn't standing still and allowing China to just catch up and take the lead. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have come up with a series of new products that they hope will widen the technological gap with their Chinese counterparts.

SK Hynix said it would invest 20 trillion won ($17.8 billion) in a new memory chip manufacturing plant opening on Thursday in South Korea.

SK Hynix said Tuesday it will establish a joint venture in China to build a new 200 mm wafer analog foundry production line.

Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology have all confirmed that Chinese government officials visited their offices, without providing details of the probe. Chinese regulators haven't disclosed precisely what they are looking for or what evidence they have uncovered.

China has launched a probe into Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology, the three semiconductor makers who control the market for DRAM memory chips.

The response came after industry website Jiweinet reported on Friday that the Chinese antitrust agency launched a sudden investigation into the Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen offices of Samsung, SK Hynix Inc and Micron Technology on Thursday seeking certain information.

Another class action lawsuit has been filed, alleging that Samsung, Hynix, and Micron conspired to limit the supply of memory, keeping consumer prices artificially high as a result.

Shares of Apple dropped nearly 2% on Tuesday as investors worries intensified about soft demand for iPhones after a warning from a company that supplies components for smartphones.

The South Korean chip industry is tightening its monitoring of increasing protectionist moves by China and the US as they are faced with probes and suspicions of price collision.

SK Hynix has just made their next generation GDDR6 memory available to customers which can include graphics card manufacturers such as Nvidia and AMD.

South Korea's SK Hynix said on Wednesday its board had approved its participation in a Bain Capital-led consortium that plans to purchase Toshiba's memory chip unit for JPY2 trillion (US$17.7 billion).

Japan's Toshiba has selected a group led by US private equity firm Bain Capital to buy its prized memory chip unit, three people with knowledge of the talks said on Wednesday, the latest dramatic twist to a highly contentious auction.

Apple is in talks to provide about US$3 billion in capital for Bain Capital's bid for Toshiba's memory-chip unit, adding to financial support from Dell, Seagate Technology and SK Hynix, according to people familiar with the matter.

SK Hynix is reportedly considering taking legal action against Toshiba after being rebuffed by the Japanese conglomerate during the auction process of a memory-chip unit without appropriate notice, according to sources close to the matter.

A plan for the sale of Toshiba's semiconductor unit includes an option for SK Hynix to eventually take a minority stake in the business, people involved in the proposed deal say, contradicting Toshiba's public statements.

It has been confirmed that SK Hynix started mass-producing 4th generation (72-layer) 3D NAND flash wafers and achieved ?？olden yield', which had been SK Hynix's biggest obstacle. Its solution product that uses its own controller and firmware passed certifications.

Western Digital said in a June 25 letter to Toshiba's board that SK Hynix's participation in the consortium increased the likelihood of technology leakage to the rival chipmaker, adding that the winning bid did not appear to be bigger than its own offer.

Japanese financial company ORIX has recently joined SK hynix to acquire Toshiba's chip business possibly as part of the Korean chipmaker's efforts to soothe negative sentiments in Japan, the Korea Economic Daily reported on June 2.

SK Hynix will decide on whether to spin off its foundry business on May 24 at the earliest or by the end of this week at the latest, according to industry sources. All eyes are on the company's next move as it can improve its status as integrated device manufacturer (IDM) by strengthening the non-memory chip business and seek various ways to reorganize the business by using its subsidiaries.

Four suitors have come forward for Toshiba's cash-cow memory chip unit. But with aggrieved business partner Western Digital raising objections, the company likely will face many twists and turns before completing the deal that is so crucial to its survival.

Toshiba has narrowed the number of bidders for its semiconductor business from about 10 interested parties to a smaller group that includes Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry and Korea's SK Hynix, according to people familiar with the matter.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will adopt the world's first spray-type electromagnetic interference, or EMI shielding technology, for their respective chip production lines from June, according to industry sources.

Industry watchers predicted SK Hynix may join hands with Taiwanese company Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, to acquire Toshiba's chip business. Foxconn's Chairman Terry Gou has been "very serious" about bidding for Toshiba's memory chip business.

According to industry sources, SK Hynix is planning to triple its investment in foundry business this year. To this end, SK Hynix recently organized a task force at its M8 foundry plant located in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

Toshiba has received bids from South Korea's SK Hynix, Taiwan's Foxconn, private equity fund Silver Lake and at least three other groups for a minority stake in its profitable memory chip business, according to people close to the negotiations.

South Korea's SK Hynix has entered the running for a stake in Toshiba's memory chip business, seeing an opportunity to gain on rivals in the booming NAND market, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are expected to engage in the automotive semiconductor industry in earnest as the global market is expected to grow 7.1% annually by 2020.

South Korea's LG said in a filing on Monday it agreed to sell a stake in silicon wafer producer LG Siltron to SK Holdings for KRW620 billion (US$531.9 million).

Samsung Electronics plans to mass produce 64-layer NAND flash memory for the first time in the world early in 2017, while SK hynix plans to mass produce 72-layer NAND flash in the second half of 2017 jumping over 64-layer NAND flash.