The story

South Korea's SK Hynix is in talks with Intel about a deal that would see it manufacture memory chips on U.S. soil for the first time, according to three people familiar with the discussions. Under one potential scenario, SK Hynix would lease part of Intel's long-planned chipmaking facility in Ohio. Under another scenario, it could form a venture with Intel and major cloud firms that are keen to lock in memory chip supplies, two of the people said.

One source described the talks as exploratory and stressed that no decisions have been made. A deal would mark a big win for the Trump administration, which has been ramping up pressure on chipmakers to build in the United States as relentless investment in AI and data centers fuels an acute shortage of memory chips. However, potential opposition from Seoul could be a major hurdle, the sources said. Any agreement to produce advanced memory such as HBM or even DRAM could run into opposition from the South Korean government as those technologies are considered sensitive.

SK Hynix said in a statement that it is reviewing various measures, including establishing additional production bases, to strengthen the competitiveness of its memory business, but no matters have been determined at this stage. Intel declined to comment on what it called speculation, but added that it was continuing with investments in Ohio to ready the site. South Korea's trade ministry said any decision would be at the company's discretion but if it involved a national core technology, it would be subject to a review under the Industrial Technology Protection Act.