[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] As Solidigm, SK hynix’s U.S.-based NAND flash subsidiary, accelerates its plans for a U.S. stock market listing, heated debate continues both within and outside the market and industry. This is because concerns about a “duplicate listing”—which could negatively impact SK hynix’s existing enterprise value and reduce shareholder returns—are pitted against expectations that the company will be able to proactively expand its artificial intelligence (AI) memory capacity by securing substantial funds.

According to industry sources and foreign media reports on the 18th, Bloomberg recently reported that Solidigm has selected Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead underwriters for its initial public offering (IPO). J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and UBS are also reported to have joined the underwriting syndicate. Estimates suggest the company’s valuation could reach up to $150 billion (approximately 210 trillion won), with the offering potentially raising up to $15 billion (approximately 21 trillion won).

SK hynix maintains that a decision on whether to list the company has not yet been finalized. In a regulatory filing last month, SK hynix stated, “We are reviewing measures to strengthen Solidigm’s competitiveness, but nothing has been finalized.” However, the industry views Solidigm’s recent hiring of Andrés Castrillón—a former Qualcomm executive—as vice president of government affairs and its contract with Ballard Partners, a U.S. lobbying firm with close ties to President Trump, as steps toward preparing for a U.S. IPO next year.

Solidigm is a U.S. subsidiary of SK hynix, established in 2021 following SK hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s NAND flash business. Its core business is enterprise solid-state drives (eSSDs) used in AI data centers.

The reason Solidigm’s IPO is drawing attention is the potential erosion of shareholder value resulting from a dual listing. A dual listing refers to a situation where both a parent company and its subsidiary are listed on the stock market.

The ownership structure of SK Group’s semiconductor business runs as follows: SK Inc. → SKSQUARE → SK hynix → AI Company → Solidigm. Among these, SK Inc., SKSQUARE, and SK hynix are listed on the domestic stock market. Under the Fair Trade Act, a holding company’s great-grandchild company must hold 100% of the shares to control another domestic affiliate, and a great-great-grandchild company is, in principle, prohibited from holding shares in domestic affiliates. However, these restrictions on the holding company’s investment hierarchy apply only to domestic affiliates. Consequently, SK hynix can control Solidym through AI Company, its U.S.-based subsidiary.

However, the obligations to protect shareholders arising from dual listings are a separate matter. According to the dual listing guidelines implemented by the Korea Exchange last August, even when a subsidiary is listed on an overseas stock exchange, the domestically listed parent company is required to conduct a shareholder impact assessment, establish protective measures, and maintain communication with shareholders. Consequently, even if Solidigm lists on a U.S. stock exchange, SK hynix and SKSQUARE must fulfill these obligations; failure to do so could result in penalties of up to 1 billion won. However, there are also concerns that such penalties lack practical effectiveness.

The biggest concern among domestic investors is that if Solidigm lists separately, the stock prices of companies like SK hynix—which currently reflect Solidigm’s value—could be negatively impacted. In fact, on August 6, immediately after the listing rumors were first reported, SK hynix’s stock price fell by more than 10% in a single day.

On the other hand, there is also significant analysis suggesting that the benefits of expanding investment through an IPO outweigh the losses resulting from share dilution. Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) assessed in a recent report that “the benefits of a Solidigm IPO could outweigh concerns about SK hynix’s corporate governance.” This implies that raising capital through an IPO could have a positive impact in the medium to long term.

BI estimated that even if external investors’ stake reaches 10%, the decline in SK hynix’s earnings per share (EPS) would be limited to about 1%. It explained that expanding production capacity and R&D investments with the secured funds could offset the impact of share dilution through long-term profit growth.

SK hynix currently requires massive investment in AI semiconductor sectors such as High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and advanced packaging. Simultaneous investment demands are increasing, with discussions emerging not only about the Honam Semiconductor project in South Korea but also about potential investments in new NAND production facilities in the U.S. This is the backdrop against which SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has been calling for aggressive capacity expansion day after day. If Solidigm secures its own investment funds through an IPO, SK hynix will have greater leeway to concentrate its funds on core businesses such as HBM.

Rumors that emerged prior to the speculation about Solidigm’s IPO—such as △SK hynix’s listing of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) in the U.S. and △reports that Kioxia, a Japanese NAND manufacturer in which SK hynix is the second-largest shareholder, is pursuing an ADR listing in the U.S.—all follow a similar pattern. The goal is to attract massive amounts of external capital from the U.S.—the “home of AI”—to expand production facilities and further grow the semiconductor business.