SK Hynix is in early talks with Intel to manufacture memory chips in the United States for the first time, possibly by leasing part of Intel’s delayed Ohio complex or forming a venture with cloud companies. An AI-driven memory shortage is pushing the idea forward, and the Trump administration wants it to happen. But Seoul, which treats advanced memory as sensitive technology, could block the plan or use it as leverage in a wider trade fight.

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SK Hynix, South Korea's memory giant, is in early talks with Intel to manufacture memory chips on American soil for the first time, according to Reuters. The two companies are in early talks over two possible arrangements which spoke with three people close to the discussions. In one, SK Hynix would lease part of Intel's long-delayed chip complex in Ohio. In the other, the two would join large cloud providers in a venture designed to secure memory supply. Both remain exploratory, the sources said, and nothing has been decided.

Why the Sudden Urgency

Training and then running a large model means moving huge amounts of data to the processors at high speed, which takes far more memory than the industry can supply. SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Micron together control more than 90 percent of the global market for DRAM, the working memory inside servers, PCs, and phones, and all three have told investors that their 2026 output is effectively sold out.

The tightest shortage is in high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the stacked chips that sit next to AI processors. SK Hynix is the top maker of it and because HBM sells for much more than regular memory, all three companies have moved their best factory capacity over to it. That leaves less room to make ordinary chips thereby inflating prices for servers, laptops, and phones, and data centers are buying up more and more of the supply. This is why cloud companies, which spend heavily on AI, now try to lock in memory years in advance, and why a deal tied to a US factory looks appealing to them.

Why Intel Needs a Tenant

Intel announced in 2022 that it would spend up to $100 billion on what it billed as potentially the world’s largest chipmaking complex in Ohio with production due to start in 2025. However, completion of the site’s two plants has been pushed to 2030 and 2031, leaving Intel carrying the cost of a vast, half-built facility years before it starts earning from them.

Intel, however, has fallen behind Taiwan's TSMC in advanced manufacturing, cut jobs, and handed the US government a stake of about 10 percent by converting unpaid CHIPS Act grants into equity. A paying tenant in Ohio, especially one as strong as SK Hynix, would ease the financial pressure and help justify their project, which has not yet produced any actual output. It would also give the Trump administration a clear win in its push to bring chip production onto American soil.

Why Seoul Could Still Block it

Here, the story stops being about business economics and becomes about two governments pulling in opposite directions. Advanced memory is treated in South Korea as sensitive technology. Producing HBM, or even DRAM, outside the country could trigger opposition from Seoul, and if regulators classify the know-how as a “national core technology,” any plan would face review under the Industrial Technology Protection Act. SK Hynix, for its part, said it is “reviewing various measures, including establishing additional production bases, to strengthen the competitiveness of its memory business,” while adding that “no matters have been determined at this stage.”

Trade between the United States and South Korea becomes another pressing issue due to changes in the US tariff policies. Last year South Korea committed to a large investment package in the United States in return for lower tariffs. Of a proposed $350 billion, about $150 billion has been earmarked for shipbuilding and the remaining $200 billion is still unspoken for. Seoul wants more of a say on how that money is spent and is treating any US investment by SK Hynix as leverage in the negotiation. Washington is pushing the other way with with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick threatening tariffs of up to 100 percent on South Korean and Taiwanese firms unless they commit to more American production. At the same time, Seoul has urged SK Hynix and Samsung to speed up a new domestic chip cluster in the country’s southwest leaving the company is being asked to invest heavily at home and abroad at once, on two governments’ timelines.

Building chips in the US costs considerably more than in South Korea due to higher labor and construction expenses and a supply chain still concentrated in Asia. SK Hynix has moved carefully so far, completing a secondary Nasdaq listing in July and building a chip packaging plant in Indiana rather than a full fabrication plant. Still, the intent at the top is clear.

"I think we need to build a factory in the United States. If possible, I believe we should build it," Chey Tae-won, Chairman of the SK Group conglomerate that owns SK Hynix, told reporters in July, pointing to heavy pressure from customers and governments to supply more chips.

A factory in Ohio would answer that intent, but the decision rests less on SK Hynix's own numbers than on how hard Washington and Seoul push a company caught between them. While the talks are still in the early stages, how they end will reveal who will control the supply of the chips the AI economy depends on.

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