SK Hynix Has Never Made Memory Chips In The U.S. A Potential Intel Deal Could Change That.

SK Hynix is in talks with Intel about producing memory chips in the United States for the first time, a potential partnership that could bring new activity to Intel's delayed Ohio manufacturing complex as demand for AI memory continues to grow.

The companies are discussing several possible arrangements, including SK Hynix leasing part of Intel's Ohio site or forming a venture with Intel and major cloud companies seeking to secure memory supplies, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. The talks remain exploratory and no decision has been made.

SK Hynix said it is reviewing several options, including establishing additional production bases, to strengthen its memory business but stressed that nothing has been decided. Intel declined to comment on the reported negotiations but said it remains committed to investing in and preparing its Ohio site.

The discussions come as SK Hynix rapidly expands production to meet growing demand for memory used in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company already has a major U.S. project underway, but that facility does not amount to front-end memory-chip manufacturing. The company broke ground on a more than $4 billion facility in West Lafayette, Indiana in August that will focus on advanced packaging and testing of HBM.

Under SK Hynix's plans, cutting-edge memory wafers manufactured in South Korea will be shipped to Indiana and assembled into HBM products there. The company expects the facility to begin mass production of next-generation HBM in the second half of 2029 and employ about 1,000 people once commercial operations are underway.

A manufacturing arrangement with Intel would therefore represent a different step in SK Hynix's U.S. expansion by potentially bringing production of the memory chips themselves onto American soil.

The talks could also give Intel another use for its Ohio complex, where construction has moved more slowly than initially planned as the company has tightened spending and aligned new manufacturing capacity more closely with customer demand.

Intel said in its latest annual filing that it slowed construction of its new Ohio wafer fabrication facility in 2025 as part of a broader effort to better match manufacturing capacity with expected demand. It also discontinued planned expansions in Germany and Poland.

The Ohio project was originally announced in 2022 as a more than $20 billion investment to build two leading-edge factories in Licking County. Intel said at the time that the nearly 1,000-acre site could eventually accommodate as many as eight fabs if demand supported further expansion.

Finding outside customers has become particularly important for Intel because of the enormous cost of maintaining leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing.

Intel's 2025 annual report says the cost structure of its advanced manufacturing technologies requires production volumes beyond those generated by Intel's own products to achieve economic efficiency. The company has been trying to transform its manufacturing operations into a foundry business that can also produce chips for outside customers.

Intel said it had relatively few external foundry customers at the end of 2025 but described building that business as a key long-term strategy. It is actively seeking customers for its next-generation 14A process and has warned that it could pause or discontinue development of 14A and later leading-edge technologies if it cannot secure a significant external customer.

The company has also received substantial federal support for its U.S. manufacturing expansion. The Commerce Department awarded Intel up to $7.865 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act in 2024 to support semiconductor projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon.

The department said the funding would support Intel's plans for nearly $90 billion in U.S. investment through the end of the decade, including leading-edge chip fabrication and advanced packaging.

SK Hynix has been expanding its own production network as demand for HBM and other memory used in AI data centers increases. Its Indiana investment gives the company a U.S. base for advanced packaging, but most of its semiconductor manufacturing remains concentrated in Asia.

Moving some of that manufacturing to Ohio could face an additional hurdle in South Korea. A potential deal involving advanced technologies such as HBM or DRAM could be subject to scrutiny by Seoul, the news agency noted.