SK Hynix announced the acquisition of Intel’s flash memory business for $9 billion

Earlier, Nvidia announced the acquisition of ARM, AMD announced the acquisition of rival Xilinx, and the semiconductor industry mergers and acquisitions are still in progress.

Today, South Korean semiconductor company SK Hynix announced the acquisition of Intel’s flash memory business for US$9 billion, including solid-state drives, NAND flash memory, and wafer fabrication plants.

After the transaction is completed, Intel will only retain Optane to continue its development. Optane is an advanced storage business newly launched by Intel in recent years. Intel has high hopes for this business.

As usual, this transaction requires regulatory approval from major global markets. If it goes smoothly, the transaction is expected to be completed before the end of 2021.

Image: SK Hynix

In this transaction, Intel will sell most storage-related businesses to SK Hynix, such as Intel’s solid-state drive business, enterprise hard drive, flash memory, and wafer business.

Intel’s non-volatile storage technology manufacturing base in Dalian is also included, which will also belong to Hynix after the transaction is completed.

It is reported that Hynix and Intel have been negotiating this transaction for several years. Hynix has accumulated a large number of funds during the previous storage price increase cycle to seek accelerated development.

After the acquisition of Intel’s storage business, Hynix’s NAND flash memory market share will reach 20%, and only Samsung will still exceed Hynix’s market share by then.

For Hynix, not only can it continue to quickly seize the market, but it can also lead to the development of the storage industry with the help of Intel technology and technology patents obtained in the transaction.

Via: TechCrunch