Intel and SK Hynix shares rose in premarket trading Wednesday after Reuters reported the two companies are discussing a first-of-its-kind arrangement to produce memory chips on US soil.
The market reaction
Intel gained 3.2 percent before the open while SK Hynix’s Nasdaq-listed depositary receipts added 2.6 percent, a move that coincided with the report rather than any confirmed agreement.
What the talks involve
One scenario under discussion would have SK Hynix leasing space inside Intel’s Ohio fabrication campus, according to people familiar with the matter. Another would create a joint venture that also brings in major cloud providers. The conversations are preliminary and no decisions have been reached, one source said. Neither company responded to requests for comment.
The strategic stakes
A deal would hand Intel a marquee foundry customer at a moment when CEO Lip-Bu Tan is trying to prove the manufacturing business can attract top-tier clients. It would also align with Washington’s push to reshore more of the semiconductor supply chain. SK Hynix is a dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory, the component that sits alongside Nvidia’s processors in AI data centers, and the broader memory boom has lifted its Korea-listed shares roughly 400 percent over the past year.
South Korean oversight looms
Any agreement covering advanced memory such as HBM could run into resistance from Seoul, which treats the technology as sensitive, Reuters reported citing three sources.
SK Hynix already building in Indiana
The South Korean firm broke ground last month on a $4 billion plant in Indiana that CEO Kwak Noh-Jung has said will become a key US HBM production base by 2030. Chairman Chey Tae-won described demand for the product as enormous in a July interview. The Ohio talks would represent a parallel track rather than a replacement for that project.