Seoul, Oct 20 (EFE).- South Korean company SK Hynix, the world's second largest chip maker, announced Tuesday it will acquire the NAND memory chip business of American multinational corporation Intel in an operation worth about $9 billion.

SK Hynix will acquire Intel's NAND memory and storage business, which includes the NAND SSD business, the NAND component and wafer business, as well as the US company's NAND memory manufacturing facility in Dalian, China, while Intel will retain its Optane memory technology business, the companies announced in a joint statement.

The transaction is valued at 10.31 billion won ($9.039 billion), according to a statement sent to the Korea Stock Exchange.

Out of the total, about $7 billion will be paid next year, when the South Korean company acquires the NAND SSD business and the Dalian plant.

SK Hynix will pay the remaining approximately $2 billion in March 2025, when it acquires the remaining assets, including IP related to the manufacture and design of NAND flash wafers, R&D employees, and the Dalian fab workforce, from Intel, according to the statement.

With the acquisition, SK Hynix will move up from being the world's fourth largest producer of NAND memory chips to becoming the second largest, according to industry sources.

"By taking each other's strengths and technologies, SK Hynix will proactively respond to various needs from customers and optimize our business structure, expanding our innovative portfolio in the NAND flash market segment, which will be comparable with what we achieved in DRAM," Seok-Hee Lee, Chief Executive Officer of SK Hynix, said.

The company, which is based in Icheon, located southeast of Seoul, has the second largest share in the DRAM market, behind only South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

Intel, known primarily for its computer processor business, said it intends to use transaction proceeds to "advance its long-term growth priorities, including artificial intelligence, 5G networking and the intelligent, autonomous edge," according to the statement.

"For Intel, this transaction will allow us to further prioritize our investments in differentiated technology where we can play a bigger role in the success of our customers and deliver attractive returns to our stockholders," Intel CEO Bob Swan said.

After the announcement of the acquisition and in a session marked by widespread declines, shares of SK Hynix, South Korea's second-largest firm by market capitalization, fell by 2.31 percent. EFE

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