South Korean regulators approve SK Hynix's acquisition of Intel NAND Business

South Korea's antitrust regulator said on Thursday that it had approved the acquisition of Intel's NAND business by SK Hynix.

Last October, SK Hynix, South Korea's second-largest chipmaker, signed an agreement to buy Intel's non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory) division for $9 billion and submitted an application for approval to (FTC), South Korea's Fair Trade Commission, in January.

Prior to this, SK Hynix has been approved by regulators in the United States and Europe. At the same time, five other countries, including China and the UK, are currently conducting reviews by relevant departments. SK Hynix plans to get approval from these countries by the end of this year.

According to the latest TrendForce data, SK Hynix is currently the fourth largest NAND flash memory supplier in the world, with a market share of 12.3% in the first quarter of 2021, while Intel is the sixth largest NAND flash memory manufacturer with a market share of 7.5%.