Solidigm announces new co-CEOs

U.S. chip giant taps parent SK Hynix as Richard Chin joins Xin Guo in the hot seats

Solidigm appointed SK Hynix alum Richard Chin as co-CEO.

Chin will lead the U.S. chip firm alongside fellow co-CEO Xin Guo, who was promoted to the top role in March from his SVP position for data center engineering. Chin worked in the role alongside his predecessor Jinsoo Kang.

While an earlier report from Blocks and Files suggested Solidigm had been looking for a permanent CEO, this week’s announcement sees the firm settle on a permanent co-CEO leadership structure. Kang’s next move was not announced, but his LinkedIn page still lists him as director of SSD (solid-state drive) product planning at SK Hynix America.

Before joining Solidigm, Chin served for more than 14 years as SVP for global sales at SK Hynix America. According to Solidigm, he led the commercial integration of Hynix Semiconductors into the SK group and served as chief sales and marketing officer for SK Hynix.

Chin also served as president of SK Telecom Americas between 2008 and 2012, following a similar role at Motorola Mobility.

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“The opportunity before Solidigm is tremendous as the AI era has elevated storage to the level of a strategic asset,” Chin noted. “Xin and I will work with our team members to align strategy and refine our core business to meet the evolving needs of our customers and mark new territory for our business.”

Originally a non-volatile (NAND) and SSD business owned by Intel, Solidigm was snapped up by SK Hynix for $9 billion in 2020 and merged with the South Korean giant’s own NAND operations, with staff like Guo making the jump.

SK Hynix more recently spun out a new venture tentatively called AI Company (AI Co.), centered around a $10 billion investment in Solidigm.

In conversation with SDxCentral, Roger Corell, senior director for AI and strategic marketing at Solidigm, stressed Solidigm would continue to stand on its own two feet.

“We've got the backing of a massive corporation. … [But] Hynix has a unique set of customer[s], and we have a customer base. And so I think if you look at it kind of simplistically, from customer base, there's very clear delineation,” Corell said.