SK hynix pushed back on Wednesday against a Reuters report that it has been negotiating with Intel about making memory chips in the United States, a step the Korean firm has never taken. The company told TechCrunch that nothing has been finalised. The report had cited unnamed sources.
Two arrangements were floated. One would put SK hynix inside Intel’s Ohio campus as a tenant. The other would create a joint venture with cloud providers holding a stake. Neither has been decided, the company said, adding only that it keeps reviewing options to stay competitive.
Ohio has a long history as a building site. The Licking County campus was announced in 2022 with more than $28B of planned investment, and a $7.86B award under the CHIPS Act followed. Its timelines have slipped more than once since.
American production is already on SK hynix’s books. In West Lafayette, Indiana, a $3.9B packaging and research plant broke ground in August. DRAM wafers will arrive from Korea and leave as high-bandwidth memory, with supply for US customers targeted from 2029.
Seoul could still have a say. Officials there have said the call belongs to the company, though a law covering overseas transfers of sensitive chip technology leaves the government a review path. One large handover already links the two firms: Intel’s NAND flash business went to SK hynix in 2020 under an agreement valued at $9B.
Behind the report sits a squeeze on memory supply that has been moving AI hardware prices, and a White House pressing chipmakers to build at home.
