SK Hynix, a memory chip maker based in South Korea, is on the verge of buying NAND, a memory unit under Intel for $9 billion. The two companies had announced the deal on Tuesday 20th October 2020.

According to ZDNet, if the deal goes through, SK Hynix will become the world’s second-largest NAND flash memory maker. Intel will be selling its NAND SSD business, NAND component and wafer business, and its NAND memory chip facility in China.

Besides the NAND memory unit, Intel also runs another memory unit called #D XPoint or Optane. For now, it appears that Optane is not up for sale and the non-volatile memory solution will remain with Intel.

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Intel is awaiting the US government’s approval of the deal while SK Hynix is waiting for South Korea’s green light. Once the approvals are given by the respective governments, SK Hynix will pay $7 billion first and Intel will transfer its NAND SSD IP, employees and Chinese facility. The remaining $2 billion payment will come by March 2025.

SK Hynix will be able to combine its NAND flash memory market share with that of Intel’s to make it rank just below Samsung, the market leader. It will be ranked ahead of competitors Kioxia and Western Digital. Recently, SK Hynix had stopped supply memory chips to Huawei following the US expanded restrictions in August 2020.

Besides increasing its market share, the South Korean chip maker will be able to leverage Intel’s advanced memory tech. This includes the NAND SSD technology and quadruple level cell NAND flash products. Intel on its part will be looking at investing the $9 billion in improving its processor tech.

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