September 1, 2006 – Hynix Semiconductor Inc. reportedly will invest $250 million to add a new NAND flash memory production line and hire 100 new employees (about an 8% workforce increase) at its DRAM chipmaking facility in Eugene, OR, according to local reports.

The investment represents more than double the company’s average $100 million annual expenditure for its Eugene operations, which was slated to receive $60 million in spending this year, according to Eugene’s Register-Guard.

The company plans to make a decision sometime next year whether to begin flash memory production in Eugene, depending on memory market conditions, according to Bobby Lee, Hynix spokesman. “It may be NAND or DRAM, or both,” he said, quoted by the Register-Guard.

Eugene was chosen for the investment over facilities in South Korea and China, noted The Oregonian, which added that a personal appeal from Gov. Ted Kulongoski (with no offering of tax breaks) helped seal the deal. Hynix’s $1.4 billion Eugene plant opened in 1998, and generated revenues of $420 million in 2005, about 23% of the company’s overall sales.