SK Hynix in talks with Intel on first U.S. memory manufacturing

Opening

Exploratory talks — SK Hynix may manufacture memory on U.S. soil with Intel for the first time. CNBC reports, citing Reuters, that SK Hynix is in talks with Intel about U.S. memory manufacturing. Under one scenario Hynix would lease part of Intel's Ohio facility; Reuters also said the companies could form a joint venture with Intel and major cloud firms. Talks are exploratory and no decisions have been made; neither company immediately commented to CNBC. Shares of both rose in premarket on the report.

The numbers

$4B Indiana HBM plant — prior U.S. plan, not this Intel deal. CNBC notes SK Hynix broke ground last month on a $4 billion Indiana facility that CEO Kwak Noh-Jung said would make the state a "key HBM production base in America" by 2030 — a separate, already-announced path.

Capacity doubling over five years — June company plan. CNBC cites SK Hynix's June plan to double capacity over five years, and Chairman Chey Tae-won telling CNBC in July that HBM demand is "enormous."

Why it matters

A foundry/lease or cloud-inclusive JV would be a new U.S. memory supply path for HBM and other AI memory, alongside Hynix's Indiana build — still talks, not wafers. CNBC/Reuters flag possible South Korean government sensitivity if advanced memory like HBM is involved.

Positioning

HBM supply binds — Onshoring talks do not by themselves loosen near-term HBM tightness; process transfer, tools, and yield remain the slow steps if the structure is HBM-related. A hyperscaler-inclusive JV framing (visible in market discussion) would bear on who controls incremental memory supply if talks firm.

Connects to

Samsung HBM base-die / TSMC dual-source — Parallel supplier geography and packaging politics (discussion).

Delta

2026-09-18 — Reuters: Solidigm (Hynix NAND) weighing a separate U.S. NAND fab (upstate NY candidate), explicitly distinct from these Intel Ohio talks (news).