SK Hynix recently announced that the U.S. government has granted the company’s US$9 billion proposal to acquire Intel’s NAND flash memory and storage business, the Bloomberg reported on March 12. Pursuant to the agreement, SK Hynix will pay Intel US$7 billion in the first phase and the remaining by March 2025. The acquisition will also include Intel’s NAND memory manufacturing facility in Dalian, China. With this acquisition, SK Hynix aims to challenge Samsung’s leadership in NAND flash memory while boosting the market share of its memory chips used in PCs and other devices from the current 12% to over 20%. The U.S. clearance comes faster than expected as the Biden administration has been concerning about the global chip shortage. Output value of the global semiconductor industry is estimated to top over US$470 billion in 2021, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a major government think tank and IT research institute in Taiwan.