Apple’s memory supply chain could get a new domestic manufacturing option. Reuters reports that SK Hynix, one of Apple’s key memory suppliers, is holding early talks with Intel about producing memory chips inside the United States, something the South Korean company has never done before.
Based on those discussions so far, SK Hynix has two options: either rent out the space inside Intel’s manufacturing plan in Ohio, or collaborate with Intel and major cloud providers to secure their own memory supplies. Sources familiar with the talks say nothing has been finalized yet, and other structures for the deal remain on the table too.
SK Hynix supplies Apple with memory chips alongside Samsung and Micron, making this potential shift relevant well beyond just one company’s manufacturing footprint. These talks are unfolding at a moment when AI infrastructure spending has been squeezing the broader memory supply available for consumer devices like iPhones and Macs. Chip manufacturers have continued to ramp up production on higher-bandwidth memory for AI data centers in mind, and consequently, consumer electronics manufacturers have been struggling to get enough supply for their products.
Apple has already felt that pressure directly. Back in February, the company reportedly agreed to pay Samsung roughly double its previous rate for memory chips needed to build the iPhone 17. More recently, with the supply/demand imbalances on DRAM that has affected ongoing shipping delays for the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and Mac Studio, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple has scaled back its shipment expectations for this year.
What isn’t clear yet is exactly which type of memory SK Hynix might manufacture under any eventual deal with Intel. The company’s product lineup spans DRAM for phones, computers, and servers, NAND flash storage, and HBM chips built specifically for AI processors. Reuters’ report also doesn’t specify whether a U.S. facility would end up producing memory destined for Apple’s own devices.
SK Hynix plans to have an advanced packaging facility, which is currently under construction in West Lafayette, Indiana, to package DRAM wafers manufactured back in South Korea into finished HBM chips, instead of fabricating the raw wafers domestically. Any new arrangement with Intel would represent a bigger step, potentially bringing actual chip fabrication onto U.S. soil for the first time.
