SK hynix Inc. said Friday it has stopped reviewing a pre-IPO fundraising round and a subsequent U.S. initial public offering for Solidigm, its American NAND flash subsidiary, after weeks of investor anger and regulatory scrutiny in Seoul. The decision halts a plan that media reports had tied to a potential $150 billion valuation and a multibillion-dollar share sale to fund new U.S. fabrication capacity for artificial-intelligence storage demand.
Shares in SK hynix closed up sharply on the news, as traders bet that shelving the listing would ease fears of dilution across a complex ownership chain stretching from SK Inc. and SK Square to the memory maker itself. Solidigm, carved out of Intel’s flash business, still needs additional U.S. production to meet data-centre orders, and SK hynix said that investment imperative has not changed.
What the company announced
In a fact sheet posted to its newsroom, SK hynix said Solidigm would discontinue its IPO review “in light of recent capital market conditions and share price trends.” The company argued an offering might no longer maximize value for existing shareholders after a broad correction in semiconductor equities.
SK hynix had floated an IPO as a way to raise external capital for a new U.S. fab while preserving consolidated cash for dividends, buybacks and share cancellations. Management also said a successful listing could help the market price Solidigm’s growth separately from SK hynix’s own stock, which investors complain trades at a holding-company discount.
Friday’s statement stressed that the halt is not a retreat from Solidigm’s expansion plans. Alternatives on the table remain direct investment, debt, partnerships and other financing tools, the company said.
Why regulators and minority holders pushed back
The listing debate intensified after reports in August that Solidigm could go public as early as 2026. Minority shareholders warned that a separate float could undermine their interests, especially given Korea’s rules on so-called duplicate listings when a parent already trades at home and abroad.
Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin said this week that both his agency and the Financial Services Commission viewed Solidigm as subject to duplicate-listing restrictions. SK hynix insisted those rules were not the direct trigger for Friday’s decision, but the political temperature clearly rose as chip prices slid.
The Korea Herald noted that SanDisk shares have fallen roughly 40 percent from a June peak, while SK hynix stock dropped about 35 percent over the month ending Thursday. Proceeding with an IPO into that backdrop risked locking in a lower valuation than executives had hoped for when the review began 79 days earlier.
Market reaction and what comes next
Reuters reported that SK hynix shares finished 4.4 percent higher on Friday, outperforming a flat broader market, as relief over dilution outweighed questions about how Solidigm will fund its next fab without public equity. Yonhap News Agency quoted company officials saying commitment to Solidigm’s growth “remains unchanged.”
Analysts described the pause as a timing shift rather than a strategy reversal. NAND supply for AI clusters remains tight, and U.S. customers want domestic production footprints. SK hynix must now show it can finance that build-out without the headline-grabbing IPO path—while investors watch whether Friday’s reprieve holds if semiconductor stocks rebound.