Share prices of both Intel and SK hynix have surged following a ZDNet Korea report claiming that SK is conducting R&D with Intel on 2.5D packaging using Intel's Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology, with the intention of integrating high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and logic semiconductors. Citing unnamed industry sources, ZDNet Korea reports that the company is also evaluating the materials and components required for production.

SK hynix shares have hit an all-time intraday high of $1,320 (1,946,000 Korean Won) on the Korea Exchange, climbing as much as 14.5% and pushing the company's market cap past $900 billion. Likewise, Intel's share price is up nearly 14% at the time of publication, marking a rise of 229% in the last six months, and 91% in the last month alone.

EMIB connects multiple semiconductor dies using small silicon bridges embedded directly in the package substrate, rather than relying on the large silicon interposer that underpins TSMC's Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) platform. The approach is less expensive per package and avoids some of CoWoS's thermal complexity, though the two technologies target different segments of the market.

Intel Foundry has been actively marketing EMIB and its next-gen variant, EMIB-T, to external customers. Intel CFO Dave Zinsner told the Morgan Stanley TMT conference in March that the foundry division is "close to closing some deals that are in the billions per year in terms of revenue" on advanced packaging alone. EMIB-T, which adds through-silicon vias to the bridge for HBM4 compatibility and higher bandwidth, is expected to enter production fab rollout this year.

TSMC's CoWoS lines, meanwhile, have been massively oversubscribed for more than two years. Nvidia alone is expected to account for roughly 60% of global CoWoS demand this year, with Broadcom and AMD absorbing another 26%. That leaves limited capacity for custom ASIC vendors and smaller AI chip developers, creating an opening for alternative packaging providers.

Intel has already confirmed that some customer designs originally scoped for CoWoS have been ported to EMIB or Foveros, with reports last month that Google and Amazon are among the hyperscalers showing interest in Intel Foundry's advanced packaging capabilities, no doubt at least driven in part by limited access to CoWoS.

SK hynix is already building its own 2.5D packaging facilities independently of Intel. The company recently broke ground on a $3.87 billion advanced packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, which is expected to begin operations in 2028, and approved a ₩19 trillion ($12.9 billion) packaging and test facility in Cheongju, South Korea, in January. If the Intel EMIB partnership materializes, it would give SK hynix an additional packaging pathway alongside its own in-house facilities and its longstanding reliance on TSMC's CoWoS.

Neither SK nor Intel has confirmed the rumors.

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Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.  Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.