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Entrance of SK Hynix Cheongju 3rd Factory. (Photo = SK Hynix) |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] SK Hynix is set to complete its acquisition of Intel’s NAND business next month, gaining full control over the operations. This move is expected to significantly strengthen SK Hynix’s NAND business by securing Intel’s key assets.
According to the semiconductor industry on Sunday, SK Hynix will pay the remaining $2.235 billion (approximately 3.2 trillion KRW) for the second phase of the acquisition next month. This final transaction will grant SK Hynix full legal ownership of Intel’s NAND design assets, research and development (R&D) division, and production facility workforce.
In October 2020, SK Hynix signed an acquisition deal for Intel’s NAND business as part of its strategy to diversify beyond its DRAM-focused business structure. The two-phase acquisition, totaling $8.844 billion, marks the largest merger and acquisition (M&A) deal in South Korea’s history.
During the first phase, completed at the end of 2021, SK Hynix paid $6.609 billion and took over Intel’s NAND production plant in Dalian, China, along with its solid-state drive (SSD) business. Subsequently, in December 2021, the SSD division was rebranded under SK Hynix’s U.S. subsidiary, Solidigm.
The acquisition aims to expand SK Hynix’s presence in the enterprise SSD market. At the time of the deal, Intel was the world's second-largest NAND supplier, trailing only Samsung Electronics. With relatively weaker competitiveness in the NAND sector, SK Hynix has now positioned itself as a formidable competitor to Samsung through this acquisition.
Beyond its leadership in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, SK Hynix plans to further strengthen its presence in the NAND market. Last year, the company’s NAND division recorded an all-time high revenue of 19.106 trillion KRW, a fourfold increase from 5 trillion KRW in 2019 over five years.
AlphaBIZ Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
