SK hynix: Global Semiconductor Supply Agreements
How John S. Kim, as Global Legal Team Leader at SK hynix, led negotiation of multibillion-dollar semiconductor supply agreements across five customer markets and the capital-equipment purchases that equipped fabrication facilities in Korea and China.
The matter
As Global Legal Team Leader at SK hynix, John S. Kim personally led the negotiation of multibillion-dollar semiconductor supply agreements — DRAM supply agreements on the approved record — with major customers in the United States, China, Taiwan, Europe and Japan. In parallel he negotiated capital-equipment purchase agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which equipped semiconductor fabrication facilities in Korea and China.
Why it was demanding
The work combined two opposite sides of the same industry at once. On the sell side, supply contracting set pricing, allocation and capacity commitments with the customers who bought the output. On the buy side, capital procurement committed the company to the equipment that produced it. Each side carried years of downstream exposure, and each was negotiated across borders — five customer markets and two manufacturing jurisdictions.
The role
This was in-house work led from the client side rather than advice delivered from outside it. Mr. Kim built and led SK hynix's Global Legal Team, and the negotiations were conducted with direct responsibility for the commercial result, not only for the contract language.
Relevance today
Supply agreements of this kind turn on the same questions a smaller company faces when it signs with a large counterparty: how price moves, what volume is actually committed, what happens when demand changes, and who carries the risk when it does. The Law Office of John S. Kim advises on those questions for companies negotiating commercial contracts and cross-border transactions.