Intel Corp wasn’t commenting last night on reports originating in a Korean newspaper that it was set to invest up to $1bn in the LG Group’s LG Semiconductor Co Ltd. LG Semicon, which has been struggling like every other DRAM manufacturer to cope with plummeting memory prices, also refused to comment. The Chosun Ilbo newspaper, published out of Seoul, reported on Saturday that Intel would announce next month that it would spend up to $1bn on a stake of between 20% and 30% in LG Semicon. Shares in the company rose sharply on the news. Back in April, the rumors were of Intel’s Craig Barrett, now CEO of the company, visiting Samsung Electronics to hash out the terms of a possible investment of a similar size. He didn’t deny reports of the negotiations in the Korea Times (CI No 3,380). Barrett told the paper, we are considering purchasing $800m to $1bn [memory] this year as to expand cooperative relations with Korean companies, and investing in Korean companies with technological competence in the PC architecture sector. Yesterday, Intel Corp announced that it had begun system testing of Direct Rambus DRAM devices running at 800MHz, using technology developed by Rambus Inc and manufactured by LG Semicon and Toshiba Corp.
