SK Hynix’s Potential Gain on Kioxia Investment Could Reach $49.2 Billion
Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, is one of the world’s leading NAND flash-memory makers. SK Hynix decided on Sept. 27, 2017, to join a Bain Capital-led consortium and completed the acquisition in 2018. The consortium’s deal was valued at about 2 trillion yen, with SK Hynix contributing 395 billion yen. The investment has also become a key case study in how AI-driven storage demand can revalue memory assets.
As of June 17, 2026, Kioxia’s shares had risen more than 50-fold since its Tokyo listing in late 2024, lifting its market capitalization above 51 trillion yen, largely as AI data centers boosted demand for NAND and storage. SK Hynix holds a stake of more than 7% through the consortium and owns convertible bonds equivalent to another 15% stake that can be converted in 2028. Based on Kioxia’s market value at the time, SK Hynix’s remaining interests were worth 7.9 trillion yen, or about $49.2 billion, implying a potential return of roughly 19 times its investment.
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The history behind this eventSK Chairman Presses Kioxia for Deeper Ties, Threatens Exit
AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory and NAND flash has tightened global supply, pushing SK hynix to consider capacity beyond South Korea. The chipmaker invested about 4 trillion won in Kioxia in 2018 through a Bain Capital-led consortium, giving it an indirect economic interest in the Japanese NAND producer. That link carries strategic weight: the companies compete in flash memory, but closer production, research and supply-chain coordination could help SK hynix add capacity faster as AI infrastructure spending accelerates.
In an interview published by Asahi Shimbun on Sept. 2, 2026, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said the group was weighing memory-chip plants overseas, including Japan, and expected to outline specific investment plans by year-end. He said joint production with Kioxia was an option, alongside shared R&D and supply chains. Chey made continued backing conditional on a deeper operating relationship: if Kioxia does not include SK hynix in its future strategy and no cooperation can be built, SK will end the investment. No factory site, spending figure or withdrawal timetable was disclosed.
SK hynix Approves $38.4 Billion for Two AI Memory Plants
Artificial intelligence data-center spending is driving demand for high-bandwidth memory and enterprise NAND, turning memory capacity into a strategic bottleneck for the technology industry. SK hynix, a leading supplier of HBM and advanced DRAM, is expanding in South Korea to secure the output needed for AI accelerators and servers. The scale of the commitment signals that the company sees AI-related memory demand as a structural shift, not merely another short-lived semiconductor cycle.
On Aug. 7, 2026, SK hynix said its board approved 54.3 trillion won ($38.4 billion) of investment through 2031, allocating 35.2 trillion won to the Y2 fab in Yongin and 19.1 trillion won to the M17 plant in Cheongju. Y2 will produce next-generation DRAM, including HBM, while M17 will focus on enterprise NAND. Cleanrooms are expected to begin opening in 2029, and the company has advanced completion of its broader Yongin cluster to 2033 from 2045.
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