According to online sources, the EU antitrust authority intends to study the details of a deal in which South Korean company SK hynix intends to acquire Intel’s plant, which is used to produce NAND memory chips, for $ 9 billion. According to the European Commission, the regulator will announce its decision by May 20.

Intel announced the sale of the aforementioned plant back in October last year. The decision to sell stems from a broader plan by the American company to divest its non-core businesses in order to focus on its smaller but more lucrative Optane memory business.

It is worth noting that for SK hynix, the purchase of the Intel plant is the largest acquisition, thanks to which the manufacturer will be able to close the gap in the segment of production of NAND flash memory chips from South Korean Samsung. Currently, this type of memory is used in smartphones and other mobile devices, in server hardware, solid state drives, etc.

SK hynix reportedly requested approval from the EU antitrust authority on 13 April. The European regulator may approve the deal or initiate a larger investigation that will take several months. It is worth noting that the Foreign Investment Committee and the US Federal Trade Commission have already approved this deal and have no claims against its participants.