SK hynix weighs Ohio factory lease amid investment, production push from Washington
The Korean chipmaker, wary of further U.S. tariffs, is exploring options for setting up a production base in Ohio using Intel's facility, but it may have to balance domestic pressures as well.
The SK hynix logo is seen in this illustration created on June 11.
REUTERS/YONHAP
SK hynix is exploring a potential arrangement with Intel to produce memory chips in the United States, a move that would mark the first time the Korean chipmaker manufactured chips on American soil.
The company is considering multiple options, including leasing part of Intel's Ohio facility or forming a joint venture with Intel and major cloud providers, Reuters reported Wednesday. No definitive decisions have been made, and one source in the report described the talks as exploratory.
“We are reviewing multiple measures to strengthen our chipmaking competitiveness,” an SK hynix spokesperson told the Korea JoongAng Daily when asked about the possibility. “But nothing has been determined at this stage.”
SK hynix has no chip production facility in the United States. While the company is building an advanced packaging plant in Indiana, it has no front-end wafer fabrication capacity in the country.
Pressure from the U.S. government on Korean chipmakers to establish a domestic manufacturing base has been growing, however. Earlier this month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed on CNBC that Washington is planning a second round of tariffs that would scale levies on foreign products based on how much those countries commit to building manufacturing facilities in the United States. Washington has made clear it expects Samsung and SK hynix, whose memory chips power the advanced AI accelerators built by major U.S. technology companies, to take action.
Lutnick first raised the tariff threat in January at the groundbreaking ceremony for Micron's new plant in Clay, New York, warning that memory chipmakers without U.S. manufacturing bases would face tariffs of up to 100 percent.
Reports of a potential U.S. acquisition by SK hynix have surfaced multiple times this year. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in a Bloomberg Television interview in July that he was reviewing further U.S. investment, following the company's recent U.S. listing via American Depositary Receipts. An exclusive JoongAng Ilbo report subsequently said SK hynix planned to buy Intel's Ohio plant outright, a claim the company denied.
Leasing part of the facility has been seen as a more realistic alternative. Even so, the Reuters report noted that the talks remain exploratory, with no decision made on what type of memory chips the facility would produce.
SK hynix also faces pressures from its own government. Korea considers semiconductor manufacturing a core national technology, and any deal to establish manufacturing in the United States would be subject to review under the Industrial Technology Protection Act, the report further said. Seoul is also pushing the company to anchor a new chipmaking cluster in the country's southwest.
BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]
