SK Hynix in Talks With Intel for First US Memory Production
SK Hynix is in discussions with Intel to manufacture RAM chips in the United States for the first time. The talks were reported Sept. 16, 2026, citing sources familiar with the matter. Reuters Nothing has been signed, and the structure under discussion is still fluid.
Two models are on the table, according to the same reporting. One would have SK Hynix lease space inside Intel's planned factory in Ohio to produce the chips. The other would create a joint venture, a company owned together by partners, that could include cloud-service providers as participants. TechCrunch
SK Hynix responded the same day with a holding statement. It said it is "exploring various options to strengthen its global competitiveness, but no specific plans or arrangements have been finalized." It added that no decisions have been made about the two scenarios in the reporting. Its official post was titled "No plans have been confirmed regarding the reported talks between SK hynix and Intel on memory chip production in the U.S." SK Hynix Newsroom
Investors moved quickly on the report. SK Hynix's U.S.-listed shares gained 3.3% following the news, and Intel shares also rose initially. Those gains eased after SK Hynix said no plans had been confirmed. Investing.com
These talks are separate from SK Hynix's committed U.S. footprint. The company is building a $3.8 billion advanced packaging and research facility for AI chips in West Lafayette, Indiana, with mass production expected in 2029. That site will take DRAM wafers fabricated in South Korea and package them into HBM chips, stacked memory paired with AI processors.
The two companies have transacted before. In 2020, Intel sold its NAND flash-memory business to SK Hynix for $9 billion, a deal that included Intel's NAND SSD business. SK Hynix later received China's approval to take over Intel's NAND business.
The broader context here is that packaging in Indiana is not the same as fabricating memory in Ohio. Indiana adds U.S. capacity at the back end, where HBM stacks are assembled for accelerators. Ohio would put front-end DRAM production, where the memory circuits are formed, on U.S. soil for the first time for SK Hynix.
In my view, the lease model and the joint venture model solve different problems, and that second detail is the more telling one. A lease inside an Intel shell reduces the risk and time of building a new plant from scratch and preparing its cleanrooms. A joint venture with cloud-service providers would spread the high capital cost and tie output to contracted demand, which points to buyers wanting firmer visibility into HBM supply rather than leaving procurement to spot cycles. If either path proceeds, the effect would be incremental U.S. optionality for memory, not autarky. That still matters, giving system vendors and accelerator builders more flexibility on qualification, logistics and continuity planning.
