Key points
- Solidigm halts Nasdaq IPO and pre-IPO fundraising plans
- SK Hynix cites market conditions and shareholder interests
- Korean regulators had questioned Solidigm's listing
On October 23, SK Hynix (000660) said its US storage unit Solidigm has stopped working on a Nasdaq IPO. Solidigm's pre-IPO round, a sale of shares to investors before the listing, has stopped too.
SK Hynix announced the decision in a regulatory filing before the market opened in Seoul. "Our overseas subsidiary Solidigm had been reviewing various ways to raise funds to expand production capacity and strengthen its competitiveness, but after taking capital market conditions and other factors into account, it decided to stop reviewing a pre-IPO round and an initial public offering (IPO)," the filing said.
The filing answers a question SK Hynix had left open since summer. On August 5, Hankyung (한국경제) reported that Solidigm was preparing a pre-IPO round of about 5 trillion won ($3.8B). SK Hynix replied that day, and again on September 4, that nothing had been decided.
The company explained a little more outside the filing. "It isn't because Solidigm's growth potential or its need for investment has changed," SK Hynix said, New Daily (뉴데일리) reported. The company said that, looking at recent capital market conditions and stock prices, the company needed to think again about whether an IPO right now is the best choice for SK Hynix and its existing shareholders.
Solidigm reportedly picked IPO banks this month
Earlier this month, Solidigm picked Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to lead a Nasdaq IPO that could raise about $10 billion as early as 2027 and value Solidigm at up to $100 billion, Bloomberg reported on October 7. We wrote about why SK Hynix shareholders were worried at the time.
Solidigm is the NAND flash and solid-state drive business SK Hynix agreed to buy from Intel in 2020 for about $9 billion. A US holding company called AI Company owns all of it. Above AI Company are SK Hynix, SK Square, and SK Inc., and those three are already listed in Seoul.
Shareholders and regulators raised concerns
In Korea, people call this a duplicate listing, when a parent company and a company it owns both trade on the stock market. If Solidigm sold new shares to outside investors, SK Hynix would own a smaller percentage of Solidigm and have a smaller proportional claim on Solidigm's future profits. The Korea Corporate Governance Forum (한국기업거버넌스포럼) had warned the plan could move wealth away from SK Hynix's shareholders. A Solidigm listing would also have made four listed companies in one SK chain.
Korea's new rules on duplicate listings took effect on August 3, and they cover listings in other countries too. On October 19, at a National Assembly audit, Lee Chan-jin (이찬진), governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (금융감독원), was asked about Solidigm by Rep. Park Sung-hoon (박성훈) of the People Power Party.
"We're continuing to monitor the Solidigm issue," Lee said. "Both the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service judge that it conflicts with the duplicate listing rules," he continued. "If we can pass our concerns on to SK Hynix in an appropriate way, we'll do so," he added, SBS Biz reported.
SK Hynix's filing came four days later.
SK Hynix fell 31% in October before the filing
SK Hynix closed at 1,223,000 won ($922) on October 22, down 5.5% for the day. That's 31% below where SK Hynix ended September, by our calculations, as chip stocks have fallen sharply this month.
The filing doesn't say whether Solidigm could try to list again later, or how Solidigm will pay for more production instead.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix isn't the only Korean company to step back from a Nasdaq listing this week. On October 20, Myoung Shin Industry's board voted against an IPO for its US unit.
Quotes are translated from Korean. Won figures are converted at 1,326.50 won to the dollar, the Naver Finance rate on October 22, 2026.
