SK Hynix Weighs Chongqing Stake Sale as Chairman's Supply Squeeze Call Adds Fuel to Rally
Published on 08/15/2026 at 05:20 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The memory-chip giant's stock has been on a tear, but the forces driving it are more layered than a single bullish headline suggests. Over the past week, SK Hynix shares have climbed 16 percent, with Friday's 3.1 percent gain coming on the heels of two distinct catalysts: board approval for a massive domestic factory build-out and a striking prediction from the group's chairman about the industry's tightest supply conditions ever.
Chey Tae-won, chairman of parent SK Group, told the market on Friday that 2027 is poised to deliver the largest supply-demand gap in the history of memory chips. The comment landed with immediate effect, pushing the stock to close at 1,643,000 won. That advance, however, was not the week's only driver — investors were also digesting the board's green light for new fabrication plants in Yongin and Cheongju, a project carrying a price tag of roughly $38 billion.
A Potential Exit From China
Amid the bullish noise, SK Hynix is quietly exploring a partial divestment of its packaging facility in Chongqing. The company confirmed Monday that it is evaluating options for the site but stressed that no decision has been made, with further details promised within a month. According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, the firm is in talks with advisers, and Chinese investment funds along with local semiconductor players are being floated as potential buyers. Media estimates peg the facility's value at around $3 billion should a transaction materialize.
The timing is notable. A stake sale in China would free up capital that could be redirected toward the very capacity expansions now being greenlit in South Korea — a strategic reshuffle rather than a fire sale. The company's framing of the review as "exploratory" suggests a measured approach to capital allocation, not a distressed exit. The Chongqing plant handles chip packaging, a step that has grown in strategic importance as AI customers demand specialized solutions like HBM.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
The Rally's Broader Tailwinds
Friday's share price reaction was primarily attributed to the factory approval announced Thursday, though Chey's supply-gap declaration reinforced the prevailing narrative. That narrative has been building for weeks: the stock has advanced 17 percent since the company's earnings release roughly two weeks ago, and the ADR jumped 7.29 percent Thursday after rival SanDisk issued profit guidance for 2028 through 2030 projecting roughly 80 percent adjusted gross margins and about 50 percent free-cash-flow margins.
Investors read SanDisk's outlook as evidence of sustained pricing power across the memory complex, not just for one manufacturer. The market, in other words, is buying the cycle rather than any single company. That interpretation has also won over the ratings agencies: Moody's upgraded SK Hynix's long-term issuer rating to 'A3' from 'Baa1' in early August with a stable outlook, marking the company's first A-category rating from a major global agency. The upgrade carries real consequences, lowering financing costs for the very expansion projects now underway.
What's Priced In, What's Ahead
The tension between the long-term thesis and short-term trading is hard to ignore. A chairman's prediction about 2027 supply constraints is a bet on years, yet the market reacts in days — sometimes hours. The 7.29 percent ADR jump and Friday's 3.1 percent gain both illustrate how quickly sentiment can shift.
Technological momentum continues apace. SK Hynix and SanDisk jointly published the first open specification for High Bandwidth Flash through the Open Compute Project in early August, targeting AI inference bottlenecks. Days earlier, the company showcased 16-layer HBM4 modules with 48 gigabytes at the FMS 2026 conference, along with a 375-layer 4D NAND chip slated for mass production in the first half of 2027 — the very year Chey flagged as the tightest on record.
Meanwhile, reports persist that NAND subsidiary Solidigm is preparing a Nasdaq listing with a target valuation of around 50 trillion won, a move that would benefit from the industry-wide re-rating triggered by SanDisk's margin outlook.
The monthly picture, however, remains sobering. Despite the recent surge, SK Hynix shares are still down 21 percent over the past month, and the stock sits 45 percent below its 52-week high of 2,987,000 won. The Chongqing review adds another variable: investors will be watching closely for the details promised within the month, even as the outcome — deal or no deal — remains genuinely uncertain.
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