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Intel's Ohio timetable puts any SK Hynix memory made there at 2030 or later
Reuters reports exploratory talks over leasing part of Intel's Ohio complex or building a joint venture with cloud buyers who want guaranteed memory. Intel says the site comes online between 2030 and 2031.
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What happened
- SK Hynix is in preliminary talks with Intel over a deal that would put its memory production inside the United States for the first time, with one option a lease of part of the planned Ohio complex.
- Intel announced the Ohio complex in 2022 as an investment of up to $100 billion with production from 2025; the two plants were pushed back, one due for completion in 2030 and the other in 2031.
- Making advanced memory, including HBM and even DRAM, may need South Korean government approval, because those technologies can fall under the industrial technology protection law when judged key to national security.
- Intel shares rose 5.2% in Wednesday premarket trading, and SK Hynix closed 4.1% higher in Seoul.
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Why it matters
- constraint A joint venture at Ohio secures memory for the back half of the decade, so cloud buyers negotiating now for guaranteed HBM still need another source for the shortage the market has today.
- cost US fabrication costs significantly more than Korean fabrication on labour and construction, and with the supply chain concentrated in Asia that premium lands on whoever signs the lease or the joint venture.
- decision SK Hynix has to satisfy a government funding a $520 billion domestic capacity plan and one demanding American production, and the two want those wafers made in different places.
- exposure Intel's relief from the cost of Ohio depends on a counterparty that says it has not approved US memory plans, so the project's funding gap stays open until Seoul and SK Hynix both move.
The two reported structures are different deals. A lease gives SK Hynix space inside a complex Intel is still preparing, at what Tom's Hardware identifies as the under-construction Intel Ohio One site [2][3]. A joint venture with cloud companies gives those companies a claim on the output, and Tom's Hardware calls them AI hyperscalers desperate for HBM [5]. One person told Reuters the talks are exploratory and that SK Hynix is looking at other ways to structure a deal [6]. It is not known which chips would be made in Ohio; SK Hynix builds DRAM for servers, PCs and smartphones, NAND for storage, and HBM for AI systems [7].
A tenant inherits Intel's schedule. Against the 2025 production start Intel originally planned for Ohio, the current completion dates run five years late on the first fab and six on the second [29]. A lease means no new shell to build, and Intel's construction crew sets the completion date.
For Intel, a tenant or a partner would ease the financial pressure on the project, and mezha.net notes that the US government already holds a stake in the company [23][22]. Intel called the reports speculation and declined to comment, saying only that it continues to invest in the Ohio site [11].
SK Hynix is already spending in the US at the back end of the process. It is building a $4 billion packaging plant in Indiana [18]; Tom's Hardware describes that as an HBM packaging plant, with ground broken a few weeks after a $26.5 billion Nasdaq listing [19]. mezha.net dates the secondary Nasdaq listing to July [17]. Ohio would be wafer fabrication, and mezha.net says making the chips themselves in the US could strengthen SK Hynix's position in the American market [33].
Seoul cares where a fab goes. South Korean authorities are pressing SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics to accelerate a new chip cluster in the country's southwest [28]. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has threatened tariffs of up to 100% on South Korean and Taiwanese companies that do not agree to increase production on American territory [27]. Korea's $350 billion investment commitment to Washington still has $200 billion unassigned to specific projects, about 57 percent of the total [26][30].
Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, told reporters in July, "I think we need to build a factory in the United States. If possible, I believe we should build it." [20] He said in July that the company is under significant pressure and heavy lobbying from customers and governments that need more memory [21]. SK Hynix told Reuters it is "reviewing various measures, including establishing additional production bases, to strengthen the competitiveness of its memory business," but that "no matters have been determined at this stage" [9]. It said separately that it had not concluded cooperation talks with any specific company and had not approved plans to produce memory chips in the US [10].
What to watch
- Whether Korea designates the HBM or DRAM process as national-security-critical technology. A designation would move the timing of any deal to a ministry review.
- Whether any joint venture terms name the cloud investors and give them capacity allocation as well as equity.
- How the $200 billion of South Korea's commitment to Washington that has no assigned projects gets allocated.