SK Hynix’s Solidigm is considering a US initial public offering as early as 2027 at a valuation of up to $150 billion, above Arm Holdings’ roughly $54 billion valuation at its 2023 debut, Reuters reported on 25 September.
Key points
- Solidigm held meetings with investment banks competing for IPO roles.
- Three people familiar with the plans said the listing could raise $15 billion, although its timing and size could change.
- Separate pre-IPO fundraising has drawn interest from investors, Dong-A Ilbo reported.
Solidigm’s $15 billion IPO proposal
Solidigm held pitch meetings with investment banks during the week of 21 September, according to people familiar with the process. The banks were competing for roles on a potential listing. Three people familiar with the plans said the company could raise $15 billion.
The people said the proposed size and timing were at an early stage and could change with market conditions. A deal at the valuation under consideration would give investors a separate public-market price for a business within SK Hynix’s storage operations. Solidigm is a US subsidiary of the South Korean chipmaker.
At up to $150 billion, the proposed valuation would also be above the approximately $56 billion fully diluted valuation of Cerebras Systems in its 2026 IPO. Reuters reported that the Solidigm deal could become the largest US semiconductor listing on record if it proceeds at the scale under discussion.
The possible IPO follows SK Hynix’s purchase of Intel’s NAND memory and solid-state drive business for about $9 billion in a deal announced in 2020. The company brought those operations together under Solidigm, which began operating as a standalone subsidiary in 2021.
Solidigm’s enterprise drives and US factory plans
Solidigm, based in Rancho Cordova, California, supplies enterprise solid-state drives for servers, cloud infrastructure and data centres. It has pursued high-capacity products for AI applications, where storage requirements rise with the volume of data handled by computing systems.
Its products include 30-terabyte and 60-terabyte-plus enterprise drives based on quad-level cell technology. Quad-level cells hold four bits of data each, compared with three in triple-level cells. The publication said Solidigm was already commercialising drives at those capacities.
TrendForce said revenue at the five largest enterprise SSD makers reached $37.59 billion in the second quarter, up 103.6% from the previous quarter. Those industry figures describe demand for the products Solidigm sells, rather than Solidigm’s own sales.
Solidigm is also considering a US NAND flash manufacturing plant. Upstate New York has emerged as a leading candidate, Reuters reported earlier in September. Separately, people familiar with its manufacturing discussions described a potential site in the eastern US, The Korea Economic Daily reported on 18 September.
SK Hynix considers pre-IPO investment
Solidigm attracted interest in separate pre-IPO fundraising. Dong-A Ilbo reported that the company was seeking $5 billion in a pre-IPO round and that Blackstone was among the investment firms considering participation. Those investments remained under consideration.
SK Hynix said in August that it was considering ways to strengthen Solidigm’s competitiveness after reports of a possible pre-IPO fundraising round of about 5 trillion won ($3.6 billion). The figures came from separate reports of fundraising plans at different dates.
Solidigm was giving foreign investors preference in the pre-IPO process, while South Korean securities firms were also seeking ways to participate. Dong-A Ilbo reported that Solidigm planned a Nasdaq listing after the fundraising.
SK Hynix plans to finalise the pre-IPO investor lineup in October after working through the terms, Dong-A Ilbo reported.
