Status:  Clearance

Acquirer:  SK hynix Inc. (South Korea)

Acquired:  NAND business of Intel Corporation (US)

Value:  US$9 billion

Industry:   Semiconductors

On October 19, 2020, Intel Corporation entered into a purchase agreement with SK hynix Inc. pursuant to which SK hynix will acquire “Intel’s NAND memory fabrication facility in Dalian, China and certain related equipment and tangible assets (collectively, the ‘Fab Assets’), (ii) Intel’s NAND solid-state drive business (the ‘NAND SSD Business’), and (iii) Intel’s NAND memory technology and manufacturing business (the ‘NAND Business’).”  (Intel Corporation Form 8-K, Oct. 20, 2020, SEC Filing.) The transaction is to be consummated over two closings, with the first closing involving the acquisition of the “Fab Assets and the NAND SSD Business for total consideration of $7 billion in cash,” that will “not occur prior to November 1, 2021.”  (Id.)  The second closing will involve the acquisition of NAND business “for additional consideration of $2 billion,” and “is expected to occur no earlier than March 15, 2025.” (Id.)  “The consummation of the First Closing and the Second Closing is subject to customary conditions, including, without limitation . . . clearance of the transaction by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States . . . .” (Id.)  On March 12, 2021, SK hynix announced that it “received clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for its proposed acquisition of Intel’s NAND memory and storage business.”

On a related note, in early 2019, CFIUS also cleared a SK hynix investment involving Cypress Semiconductor Corporation’s NAND business, see our blog post on that transaction here.

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