Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) faced flak in China for discouraging suppliers from using Xinjiang labor or products, Bloomberg reports.
- Users on the Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)-like Weibo Corp (NASDAQ: WB) service posted a letter sent by Intel that said it is required to ensure its supply chain didn't employ labor or procure goods and services sourced in Xinjiang.
- The nationalist news site Guancha accused the chipmaker of siding with Western governments, which imposed restrictions on the region's products.
- Western governments, including the U.S., have accused Beijing of imposing forced labor in Xinjiang, including the cotton industry, and imposed sanctions over the alleged human rights abuses.
- China has said the allegations are unfounded and retaliated with sanctions of its own.
- Intel's "lack of restraint" has exposed China's weakness, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times Hu Xijin said. "Intel has the guts to do this because its supply chain had very little Xinjiang products, to begin with, but its CPUs are a necessity in China right now," Hu wrote. "For companies like Intel, we must remember all the wrongs they have done. As China gets stronger, we will have more power to retaliate against them."
- Additionally, SK Hynix Inc won China's approval to take over Intel's Nand storage unit for $9 billion.
- Hynix aims to cement its position as the largest producer of Nand memory, used in servers and smartphones.
- Hynix will pay $7 billion in the deal's first phase and the rest by March 2025.
- Hynix looks to take over Intel's facility in Dalian, China, boosting its market share of flash memory components to more than 20%, research firm TrendForce has estimated.
- Hynix plans to more than triple its flash-memory revenue over five years through the acquisition, CEO Lee Seok-hee said last year.
- Price Action: INTC shares traded lower by 0.43% at $50.55 in the premarket session on the last check Wednesday.
