South Korea's major chipmaker SK hynix Inc. announced Tuesday that it will buy the U.S. semiconductor giant Intel Corp.'s NAND memory and storage business for $9 billion, which will be reportedly the largest merger and acquisition by a South Korean company.

The deal includes SK hynix acquiring Intel's solid-state drive or SSD business, the NAND component and wafer business, and a NAND memory manufacturing facility in Dalian, China, by March 2025, according to the statement from the South Korean chipmaker, putting the company in the world's No. 2 spot in market share.

"We are very glad that SK hynix, which has been leading innovation in NAND flash technology, could make future together in cooperation with Intel's NAND business unit," said Lee Seok Hee, chief executive officer of SK hynix.

The company said that it expects to become leading global company in the field of NAND flash memory, which is briskly growing in the era of big data, by improving its competitiveness through the deal.

In a separate statement, INTEL CEO Bob Swan said, "For Intel, this transaction will allow us to further prioritize our investments in differentiated technology."

The statement said the proceeds will be invested in such areas as artificial intelligence, 5G networking and the intelligent, autonomous edge.

==Kyodo

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