The world's second-largest chipmaker, South Korea's SK Hynix, is to buy Intel's NAND chip operation in a deal worth $9 billion, it said Tuesday, as it seeks to bolster its position against Samsung. In a regulatory filing, the chipmaker said it will acquire Intel's "entire NAND business division excluding the Optane division" for 10.3 trillion won. SK Hynix was already the world number two DRAM chipmaker and second overall but lagged in the NAND memory chip category. cdl/slb/jah