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Merck pushes molybdenum production at Korean hub this year

Published: 11 Feb. 2026, 13:35

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

From left, Katherine Dei Cas, executive vice president of EMD Electronics and Dr. Kim Woo-kyu, managing director of Merck Korea, poses for a photo at Merck's booth showcased at Semicon Korea 2026 on Feb. 10. [MERCK]

Merck will begin producing molybdenum, an critical trace metal used in the production of NAND chips, at its Korean hub later this year for supply to domestic chipmakers, the German chemical and technology company said on Tuesday.

The company has been pushing for a major materials transition in semiconductor interconnect layers from tungsten to molybdenum, which used in the wires that link transistor gates across memory arrays.

Production will take place at Merck Korea’s facility in Eumseong, North Chungcheong, once construction is completed this year.

“Within 2026, we plan to complete the construction and prepare for delivery to our customers in Korea,” said Dr. Kim Woo-kyu, managing director of Merck Korea, at a press conference held on the sidelines of Semicon Korea 2026. “Depending on needs, we plan to supply products to our Asia-Pacific clients using Korea as our hub.”

Merck says that molybdenum offers superior electrical resistance compared with tungsten or copper, leading to lower power loss, reduced heat generation and faster electron flow — advantages that are becoming more critical for AI accelerators and high-performance computing chips.

The new production line is part of Merck’s previously announced 600-million-euro ($714 million) investment in Korea, originally pledged to be executed by 2025.

Initial adoption is focused on 3D NAND memory, with plans to gradually extend the material transition to dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and logic chips over time.

“While we expect molybdenum usage to expand into logic, the volume used in NAND will remain significantly higher due to 3D densification and the many stacked layers involved in the process,” said Katherine Dei Cas, executive vice president of EMD Electronics, the U.S. electronics division of Merck KGaA.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]