SK Siltron, a South Korean company that manufactures semiconductor chips and wafers, made the announcement on Thursday that it intends to make investments totaling 2.3 trillion won ($1.6 billion) over the course of the next five years, until 2026.

The funds will be used toward expanding the capacity of manufacturing at the company’s wafer factories located in Gumi, which is located in the province of North Gyeongsang. Additionally, SK Siltron will be adding a total of one thousand new employees to its wafer manufacturing facilities.

The expansion of production capacity for 300-millimeter wafers, which are thin circular slices of silicon used as a substrate for microchips, was approved by the board of directors of SK Siltron on Thursday as part of the plan. The board’s approval of the 855 billion won spending plan was part of the plan. Depending on how the market behaves, the corporation will also contemplate making extra expenditures of up to 400 billion won.

In March, at the same site, a wafer supplier for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix revealed an investment plan of 1.05 trillion won, which is in addition to what is being discussed here.

The conclusion was reached as a result of SK Siltron’s prediction that the memory chip industry would have a resurgence in the not-too-distant future after experiencing a brief downcycle. According to a statement released by SK Siltron, the company believes that this choice would enable the wafer provider to “have an upper hand in the next two or three years.”