Intel to buy stake in Samsung chip business

Intel already has a 10 per cent stake in Samsung's semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas but Samsung is allegedly asking for around $1bn to be pumped into its Korean factories.

A source close to Samsung said that "Samsung needs to raise money in Korea while Intel needs to secure the supply lines of memory chips for PCs. It makes good sense."

The Intel/Samsung negotiations follow the sale of Hyundai's Symbios division to Adaptec for $775m. The deals suggest that Korean companies are frantically downsizing with Hyundai US expecting to offload a number of its US divisions this year.