SK Hynix (HXSCL, Financial) just wrapped up its $8.85 billion takeover of Intel's (INTC, Financial) NAND flash business, officially closing a deal that's been in the works since 2020. The final $1.9 billion payment landed on March 27, handing over Intel's remaining crown jewels—its NAND intellectual property, R&D muscle, and key engineering teams. With that, Solidigm (formerly Intel's SSD unit) is now fully under SK Hynix's roof, unlocking real collaboration and product innovation that had been stalled during the drawn-out transition. What started as a split acquisition—fab and SSD ops first, then IP and talent—has now come full circle.

The strategic impact here is two-fold. For SK Hynix, this deal isn't just about scale—it's a play to dominate enterprise SSDs, despite inheriting two fundamentally different NAND architectures. Intel leaned on floating gate NAND; SK Hynix built around charge trap flash. That could complicate integration in the short term, but longer term, it opens the door for specialized, high-endurance offerings with Solidigm now able to innovate freely. The Dalian wafer supply agreement with Intel has ended too, giving SK Hynix full control of production and roadmap direction.

And for Intel, this is a clean break—and a profitable one. Offloading the NAND unit gives Intel more breathing room on its balance sheet as it doubles down on foundry and AI. With the check now cleared and the IP transferred, Intel exits the NAND game entirely. Meanwhile, SK Hynix levels up its storage ambitions, positioning Solidigm as a serious contender in next-gen enterprise flash. Investors tracking memory market shifts should be paying attention—this isn't just the end of a deal; it could mark the start of a new era in enterprise SSDs.