SK Hynix denies confirmed plans for US memory chip talks with Intel

SK Hynix wants everyone to know that it is not, in fact, buying Intel’s Ohio chip campus. At least not yet, and not in any way that anyone should consider “confirmed.”

The South Korean memory giant issued a pointed denial after reports surfaced suggesting it was in active discussions with Intel about US-based memory chip production. The company stressed it has neither pursued nor made any decisions regarding Intel’s sprawling Ohio semiconductor site, while carefully leaving the door open for future possibilities.

What actually happened

The saga started when Korea JoongAng Daily reported that SK Hynix was in discussions to purchase Intel’s under-construction Ohio campus for front-end memory chip production. SK Hynix responded with a regulatory clarification in July 2026, flatly denying any acquisition talks.

Then Reuters muddied the waters again in September, reporting that exploratory discussions between the two companies were, in fact, taking place. Not about an outright acquisition, but about potential collaborations or leasing arrangements at the Ohio facility.

SK Hynix confirmed it is evaluating various production strategies but emphasized that nothing concrete exists. Intel, for its part, has reaffirmed confidence in its Ohio operations. The campus broke ground in 2022, though the timeline has slipped considerably, with production now projected to begin sometime around 2030-2031.

The bigger picture for SK Hynix in the US

SK Hynix is not exactly a stranger to major deals involving Intel’s assets. The company previously acquired Intel’s NAND flash memory business for $9 billion, a transaction that included Intel’s Dalian fabrication facility.

The company is also already putting serious money into US manufacturing. SK Hynix is constructing a $4 billion advanced packaging facility in Indiana, with mass production targeted for the second half of 2029. That project focuses on the back-end packaging process, the stage where individual chips get assembled into the final products that end up in servers, phones, and AI hardware.

Front-end production, the actual fabrication of memory chips on silicon wafers, is a different animal entirely. It requires different equipment, different expertise, and vastly different capital commitments. If SK Hynix were to eventually use Intel’s Ohio site for front-end memory manufacturing, it would represent a significant expansion of the company’s US footprint beyond packaging.

SK Hynix and Samsung between them dominate global DRAM and NAND production, and neither currently fabricates memory chips on US soil.

What this means for the semiconductor landscape

A leasing or collaboration arrangement could theoretically benefit both sides. Intel gets a tenant or partner to help justify its massive Ohio investment. SK Hynix gets access to a state-of-the-art facility without shouldering the full construction burden.

SK Hynix did not say it would never consider US memory fabrication at an Intel facility. It said there are no confirmed plans right now.

The AI boom has made memory chips, particularly the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that SK Hynix leads in producing, among the most strategically important components in the global tech supply chain.

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