Intel, SK Hynix shares jump on report they're discussing U.S. memory chip manufacturing

JUST IN: Intel and SK Hynix shares jump on a report the two are in talks to manufacture memory chips in the US for the first time, a potential marquee win for Intel's foundry business.

Intel and SK Hynix are talking about making memory chips in America. First time ever.

Reuters broke it this morning and both stocks jumped, Intel up three and a half percent premarket, SK Hynix's Nasdaq shares up three. One scenario has SK Hynix leasing part of Intel's giant facility in Ohio. Another has a joint venture roping in the big cloud companies. All exploratory, nothing signed, but the market didn't wait for the paperwork.

For Intel's boss Lip-Bu Tan, this would be the marquee foundry customer he's been hunting for. SK Hynix is riding the AI boom hard, its Korean stock is up 400 percent in a year, and it just broke ground on a four billion dollar plant in Indiana.

One catch. High-bandwidth memory is so sensitive that Seoul might block the whole thing. The technology every AI chip needs, and it's now a matter of national security in two countries at once.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.