Intel’s Ohio factory project is at the center of preliminary negotiations that could give SK Hynix its first U.S. manufacturing base for memory chips, according to Reuters citing three people with knowledge of the talks. An agreement could ease pressure on Intel while expanding the South Korean company’s American operations beyond packaging.
The discussions come as spending on artificial intelligence and data centers drives a severe memory-chip shortage. Securing additional semiconductor manufacturing in the United States would also represent a significant achievement for the Trump administration, which has intensified efforts to push chipmakers toward domestic production.
Several arrangements are being considered, Reuters reported. One would involve SK Hynix renting space within Intel’s Ohio fab, whose completion is expected in 2030 or 2031. Another possibility is a joint venture bringing together the two chipmakers and large cloud companies looking to secure memory supplies.
Neither the financial commitment nor the products to be manufactured have been settled. Reuters, whose first to report on the matter, said it could not confirm which chips SK Hynix would make at the site. The negotiations remain at an early stage.
For SK Hynix, establishing wafer production in America would bring substantial cost challenges. Labor and factory construction are more expensive, and the company would need to recreate elements of a semiconductor supply network largely concentrated in Asia. Those requirements could leave U.S.-made output with sharply higher manufacturing costs.
The company’s existing American investment is focused on a different part of the production process. In West Lafayette, Indiana, SK Hynix is spending approximately $4 billion on an advanced facility for packaging high-bandwidth memory, known as HBM, for AI semiconductors.
That operation is intended to receive DRAM manufactured in South Korea and other locations and assemble it into high-performance HBM products. It will not produce memory wafers itself.
SK Hynix, which completed a secondary Nasdaq listing in July, currently has no American factory making either DRAM or NAND flash wafers. Adding a U.S. wafer operation would therefore allow the company to establish a local presence across both chip fabrication and subsequent packaging.
Government scrutiny could present a further obstacle if any agreement covers HBM or DRAM. Reuters, quoting three people familiar with the discussions, said South Korean authorities might oppose overseas production involving those technologies because of their sensitivity.
South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said responsibility for the business decision rested with SK Hynix. It nevertheless indicated that a proposal involving technology designated as nationally critical could require examination under the Industrial Technology Protection Act.
