SK Hynix Weighs a U.S. IPO Valuing Solidigm at Up to $150 Billion

The news landed on Sept. 25, while the Seoul exchange was closed.

Korea was celebrating the Chuseok harvest holiday. The market did not trade on Sept. 24 or 25. SK Hynix's local shares have not yet reacted.

According to three people who spoke to Reuters, SK Hynix's California-based subsidiary Solidigm held pitch meetings this week with investment banks competing for roles in an IPO. The listing could come as early as 2027.

Four Times the Value in Six Weeks

Solidigm was built from Intel's NAND flash and SSD business, which SK Hynix agreed to buy for about $9 billion in 2020. Today it sells high-capacity storage drives to data centers.

In early August, Korean media put the unit's value at about 50 trillion won, or roughly $36 billion. The ceiling Reuters reported is four times that.

Profit explains the gap. According to SK Hynix's interim report published Aug. 17, Solidigm booked 12.25 trillion won in revenue and 5.84 trillion won in net profit in the first half of 2026. Net profit rose 44-fold from a year earlier.

If it happens, it would be the largest IPO of a chip company in the U.S. Arm began trading at about $54 billion in 2023; Cerebras debuted at about $56 billion this year.

SK Hynix's statement was brief: "Solidigm is reviewing various options to strengthen its business competitiveness, but no specific plans have been confirmed."

Korea's New Rule Reaches Nasdaq

In Korea, this is not being read as an IPO story.

It is being read as a story about shareholders losing their share.

On July 6, Korea's Financial Services Commission and the Korea Exchange published draft rules on listed companies taking subsidiaries public. The board must assess the impact on minority shareholders and adopt protections. Shareholder approval is mandatory for spin-offs.

Regulators left one point explicit, according to The Korea Herald: listings on overseas exchanges such as Nasdaq follow the same procedure. Going abroad is not a way out.

The line between statement and action matters here. The July 6 text is a draft. The Korea Times reported in August that the government had begun applying the guidelines; the sources do not separately confirm the final text or its penalties.

The Exemption Test and the Value Test

The draft includes an exemption. No extra procedure applies if the subsidiary is below 10% of the parent's revenue, operating profit and assets. There is one exception: unless its expected market value is deemed material.

Solidigm's numbers sit right on that line.

The dilution math is simple. Selling $15 billion of new shares at a $150 billion valuation would cut SK Hynix's stake in Solidigm from 100% to about 90%. The cash goes to Solidigm. The indirect stake held by SK Hynix shareholders shrinks by a tenth.

A Five-Tier Chain

The Korea Corporate Governance Forum called in August for the plan to be halted. Chairman Rhee Nam-uh objected to the ownership chain: "this would amount to an unprecedented five-tier multiple-listing structure."

The forum's argument: each intermediate layer makes it harder for value at the bottom to reach minority shareholders. This is one source of the low multiples known as the "Korea discount."

Korean media reported that SK Group asked the government in August to ease the rule. SK Hynix shares fell 10.37% on Aug. 6, when IPO rumors surfaced.

The Other Side of the Story

The plan has a case in its favor. Mirae Asset Securities wrote that outside funding would give Solidigm $15 billion of investment capacity.

That money has a destination. Reuters reported that Solidigm is weighing a NAND plant in upstate New York. Its current production is in Dalian, China, where U.S. export controls limit access to the most advanced technology.

There is also price risk. Analyst commentary says today's profit comes largely from a supply shortage. New capacity arriving in 2027-2028 could erode that advantage.

For comparison, SanDisk had a market value of $239 billion on Sept. 11.

When Seoul Reopens on Monday

New York was the only market open on Sept. 25. SK Hynix's American depositary receipts closed up 2.78% at $191.56. The Nasdaq rose 0.48% the same day; the sources do not tie the move to the Solidigm report.

The ADR's three-month path shows the backdrop the report arrived against.

The IPO window, meanwhile, depends on Nasdaq's appetite.

Real price discovery starts in Seoul on the morning of Sept. 28. The Korean market is closed again on Oct. 5 and Oct. 9.

Micron also reports this week. Anything it says about memory pricing bears on Solidigm's $150 billion valuation too. More: What Is an IPO?

This article draws on Reuters' Sept. 25 report citing three unnamed sources, SK Hynix's first- and second-quarter 2026 results releases, and reporting by The Korea Herald, The Korea Times, Seoul Economic Daily and Blocks & Files. Solidigm's first-half figures come from SK Hynix's interim report as relayed by Korean media. Won-dollar conversions assume 1,400 won per dollar; SK Hynix's market value is as of Sept. 15. The IPO's valuation, timing and structure have not been finalized.