SK hynix’s new US AI investment arm, HYAICO Corporation, paid $377,162,666 in cash on 29 October for 200,000 convertible preferred shares of Penguin Solutions, according to a Schedule 13D filed with the SEC on 3 November. The filing puts the stake at 9.1% of Penguin’s common stock on an as-converted basis.
That is $1,885.81 per preferred share, or 1.89 times the $200 million stated value the filing gives for the stock, by our arithmetic. Businesskorea reported on 5 November that HYAICO, the entity SK hynix had called “AI Co.”, has an investment commitment of up to $10 billion.
Business Pill · Vertical Integration
A short Business Engineer explainer on vertical integration. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss SK hynix, HYAICO, Penguin Solutions or the figures in this piece.
The key insight: HYAICO, SK hynix’s new US AI investment arm, paid $377,162,666 for 200,000 Penguin Solutions convertible preferred shares, according to its 13D: $1,885.81 a share, or 1.89 times the $200 million stated value, by our arithmetic. The preferred converts into 6,096,103 common shares, 9.1% of Penguin by the filing’s count.
The 13D was filed jointly by SK hynix Inc., HYAICO Corporation and SHIFTIX1 LLC. It describes HYAICO as “formerly known as SK hynix NAND Product Solutions Corp.”, a Delaware corporation and a majority-owned subsidiary of SK hynix. SHIFTIX1 is an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of HYAICO and holds the shares directly.
The filing says SHIFTIX1 bought the preferred stock from Astra AI Infra LLC under a stock transfer agreement dated 27 July 2026, “for $377,162,666 in cash.” Each reporting person lists 6,096,103 shares of common stock underlying the preferred, which the filing gives as 9.1% of the class.
The filing gives an initial conversion price of $32.80784 per common share and says the preferred pays dividends of six percent a year, cumulative. As of 29 October, it says, the Accumulated Stated Value of the preferred was $200 million.
What HYAICO’s unit SHIFTIX1 paid for 200,000 Penguin Solutions convertible preferred shares on 29 October 2026, against their $200 million stated value and the as-converted value of the 6,096,103 underlying common shares at Nasdaq closing prices. Price and stated value from the SEC Schedule 13D; as-converted values are our arithmetic and ignore the 6% dividend and other terms.
What SK Hynix Paid, by Our Arithmetic
Dividing the $377.16 million by the 200,000 preferred shares gives $1,885.81 a share, against a stated value of $1,000 a share. That is $177.16 million, or 89%, above the stated value, by our arithmetic.
Per underlying common share, the price works out at $61.87, against the $32.81 conversion price. Penguin’s stock closed at $58.79 on 29 October, according to Nasdaq’s closing prices, so the price paid was 5.2% above that day’s close per underlying share.
Penguin closed at $48.35 on 4 November. At that price, the 6,096,103 underlying shares are worth $294.75 million, $82.42 million less than SHIFTIX1 paid, by our arithmetic. That as-converted figure leaves out the 6% dividend and the preferred’s other terms, so it is not a full valuation of the stock.
Who Runs HYAICO
Schedule I of the filing lists Tae Won Chey, chairman of SK hynix, as HYAICO’s Chairman of the Board, and Hyunjong Song as its Director, President & CEO. The other directors listed are Sung-wook Park, Nohjung Kwak and Jaihun Jung. The filing gives HYAICO’s address as 50 Hudson Yards in New York.
Businesskorea identifies Kwak as SK hynix’s CEO and Jung as SK Telecom’s CEO. It reported that HYAICO is funded through a capital-call mechanism and that SK Inc., SK Innovation and SK Telecom have made capital commitments alongside SK hynix.
From SK Telecom to SK Hynix
Businesskorea describes the seller, Astra AI Infra, as an SK Telecom affiliate. The 13D says HYAICO now has all the rights the investor agreement grants to “SKT”, including the right to nominate one Penguin director, or two if the board has twelve or more members.
The agreement also gives participation rights in new share issues, registration rights, information rights and consent rights over Penguin’s ability to take on debt. A standstill bars the holders from, among other things, making a tender offer or calling a shareholder meeting without the board’s consent.
Businesskorea says SK hynix NAND Product Solutions Corp. was formerly known as Solidigm, and that its NAND business is moving to a separate subsidiary, Solidigm Inc., which keeps the brand. On 23 October we reported that SK Hynix halts Solidigm’s potential $10B US IPO.
Businesskorea reported that dividends and profits from the existing business are meant to support SK hynix shareholder returns, while new AI investments are funded through separate capital contributions. It said HYAICO plans to target software that improves AI system performance first, then the wider AI data center ecosystem.
Connecting the Coverage
Our related pieces on SK hynix, Solidigm and Penguin Solutions:
As we read the filing, this is a purchase inside the SK group: the seller, Astra AI Infra, is an SK Telecom affiliate according to Businesskorea, and the rights move to HYAICO, which the 13D shows as majority-owned by SK hynix.
As we read the numbers, the price per underlying share, $61.87, sat close to Penguin’s $58.79 close on 29 October, not to the $32.81 conversion price; the 13D does not say how the price was set.
As we read Businesskorea’s account, HYAICO is the entity SK hynix once called Solidigm, now holding AI stakes rather than the NAND business.
Schedule 13D on Penguin Solutions, filed 3 November 2026
“On October 29, 2026, pursuant to the Stock Transfer Agreement dated July 27, 2026, between SHIFTIX1 and Astra AI Infra LLC (“Seller”), SHIFTIX1 purchased the Preferred Stocks from Seller for $377,162,666 in cash.”
Three Implications
FOR SK HYNIX Its 13D shows HYAICO, the arm Businesskorea says has up to $10 billion of commitments, holding a stake in a company that builds AI data centers; Businesskorea calls the purchase an early step in the investment strategy.
FOR PENGUIN SOLUTIONS HYAICO now holds the investor rights the agreement gave to SKT, including the right to nominate one director, or two if the board has twelve or more members, participation rights and consent rights over new debt, according to the 13D.
FOR SK TELECOM The 13D shows its affiliate’s investor rights moving to HYAICO; Businesskorea reports that SK Telecom is also one of HYAICO’s funders.
The analysis says of high-bandwidth memory: “This is the critical interface layer where compute meets data, and its physics-driven limitations now determine the ceiling on AI capability scaling.”
As we read it, the HYAICO stake in this 13D sits one step downstream of that layer, in a company that builds AI data centers. The analysis does not discuss HYAICO, Penguin Solutions or this purchase.
What Is Not Established
The 13D does not mention the $10 billion commitment, the capital-call mechanism or the other SK companies as funders; those details are Businesskorea’s report, and we have not seen them in an SK filing. The 13D does not say what Astra AI Infra originally paid for the preferred or how the $377.16 million price was set. The per-share figures and as-converted values are our arithmetic.
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SK hynix’s new AI arm paid $377.16 million for preferred shares carrying a $200 million stated value and convertible into 9.1% of Penguin Solutions, according to its 13D. By our arithmetic, that is 1.89 times the stated value and $61.87 per underlying common share, against Penguin’s $48.35 close on 4 November.
A note on sourcing. The purchase price, share counts, conversion terms, ownership percentage, investor rights and HYAICO’s officers are from the Schedule 13D and its Schedule I, filed with the SEC on 3 November 2026. The $10 billion commitment, the funding structure, the Solidigm history, the description of Astra AI Infra as an SK Telecom affiliate and HYAICO’s investment plans are from Businesskorea. Penguin’s closing prices are from Nasdaq. Per-share figures and as-converted values are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
