This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:23 p.m. on Aug. 25, 2026.
Stonebridge Group is reviewing an investment in Solidigm, the NAND flash subsidiary of SK hynix(000660), by leveraging its U.S. investment base. Stonebridge Global, the U.S. subsidiary of Stonebridge Holdings, would participate as a minority equity investor. A club deal structure is being discussed in which funds would be jointly committed with a U.S. private equity fund manager founded by former SK hynix President Noh Jong-won.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 25th, Stonebridge Global is looking at securing a minority equity stake in Solidigm by using a separate project fund if external fundraising for Solidigm is finalized. Although SK hynix has not yet made a final decision on Solidigm's external fundraising, it is understood that if investor recruitment gets underway in earnest, Stonebridge Global could join as a financial investor (FI).
Stonebridge Global is a separate investment entity that Stonebridge Holdings recently established in the United States to expand private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments abroad. Independent from Stonebridge Capital as an investment principal, it discovers opportunities locally in the United States and deploys capital on a project basis. It has already completed an investment in the U.S. bio company NANO Pharmasolution. This Solidigm investment is seen as one of the first test beds for launching full-scale large overseas investments via the U.S. base.
Collaboration with the former president's side is central to this transaction. The U.S. PEF manager founded by the former president has reportedly picked Solidigm as its first investment and is pushing to raise funds in the trillion-won range. The industry expects the former president's side to take about 20% of the total investment. A portion of that is likely to be allocated to Stonebridge Global. It is a club deal structure in which the former president's side secures the investment opportunity and then shares part of the allocation with Stonebridge Global.
From Stonebridge Group's standpoint, co-investing with the former president's side, which has expertise in the semiconductor industry, rather than committing a large amount of capital alone, allows it to gain investment experience and a network in the U.S. market. The former president is credited with a high level of understanding of the investment target, having overseen SK hynix's acquisition of Intel's NAND business, the predecessor to Solidigm, while in office.
Another point of interest around this deal is the past ties between Chairman Kim Ji-hoon, founder and largest shareholder of Stonebridge Group, and SK Group. Kim is known to have maintained touchpoints with SK Group through investment and business dealings in the past. Stonebridge participated not only in preferred share investments in SK Incheon Petrochem, but also in acquiring management control of the advertising unit Incross, and in acquiring equity in SK Group's Ulsan AI data center. For this reason, the market is saying that Kim's network may have had some influence in the process of sourcing this investment opportunity.
The size of Solidigm's external fundraising is being discussed at up to 10 trillion won. Earlier, the industry suggested that SK hynix values Solidigm at around 50 trillion won and is pursuing fundraising on a larger scale than initially expected. Global institutional investors, including UAE sovereign wealth funds such as Mubadala, are also being mentioned as candidate investors.
However, SK hynix has not yet finalized Solidigm's external fundraising. The decision on whether to raise funds, its size, the investment structure, and participating investors are also understood to be still undetermined. The industry expects that once SK hynix's external fundraising plan takes concrete shape, the size and method of investment by domestic and overseas investors, including Stonebridge Global, will be decided.