Intel has said in previous earnings calls that it is looking for options to reduce its exposure to the ups and downs in storage activity, so it’s no surprise that the Wall Street Journal today reports that Intel is negotiating to sell its NAND production unit to SK hynix for around $ 10 billion
Intel is rumored to be in talks with rival NAND chipmaker SK hynix, and today’s report apparently confirms that Intel will hand over at least some of its storage business to the South company. korean Analysts expect the deal to be announced today
Intel CEO Bob Swan has said in the past that Intel is considering forging a partnership or parting ways with its NAND manufacturing business, largely because the low-profit flash memory business is capital intensive and subject to extreme price volatility
Intel makes both NAND flash memory, the most common form of non-volatile memory in SSDs, and the exotic 3D XPoint memory which is only made by Intel and Micron The WSJ reports that the details are slim on exactly what Intel would sell to SK hynix Nonetheless, Intel is unlikely to part with its 3D XPoint business, largely because it gives Intel a unique advantage over its competitors and its persistent memory modules Optane are closely related to its Xeon processors
Instead, Intel is likely to enter into a NAND production partnership with SK hynix, or outright sell its NSG (Non-Volatile Memory Storage Group) flash production unit
Intel is already sourcing some of its NAND from SK hynix, which then makes way for some of its consumer SSDs It is not known whether Intel will stop developing and selling its own SSDs, or simply sell the branch flash production of his company while securing a long-term supply agreement with SK hynix so that he can continue to sell Intel-branded SSDs
The low-margin storage business does not align well with Intel’s goals of operating at around 60% margin as a business, and the company has reportedly already been in talks with Tsinghua Unigroup, based in China Obviously, it wouldn’t pass regulatory scrutiny amid the US-China trade war
The move comes shortly after Intel parted ways with Micron, which was its joint partner in the now-defunct IMFT partnership that helped pave the way for the SSD era Micron bought Intel from this partnership for $ 1.5 billion in January 2020, which followed the decision to cease joint development of 3D XPoint memory with Micron in 2018 However, Intel continues to manufacture both NAND and 3D XPoint, although this may of course come to an end soon
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Intel, SK Hynix, flash memory, computer memory
World news – US – Intel in talks to sell NAND storage unit to SK hynix for 10 billion dollars: WSJ
