SK Hynix’s Solidigm weighs a U.S. IPO after a bank bake-off, with sources citing up to $150 billion

SK Hynix’s U.S. storage unit Solidigm is considering an initial public offering that could value the business at up to $150 billion, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters—an early-stage step that would, if realized, put a standalone price on one of the biggest names in AI-era NAND flash and enterprise solid-state drives.

Solidigm held pitch meetings this week with investment banks competing for roles on a potential IPO, in a process known as a “bake-off,” Reuters reported, citing one of the three people familiar with the matter and a separate fourth person. That is a concrete process step toward a possible U.S. listing; it is not the same as banks being hired, an IPO being filed, or a deal being priced.

The company could raise about $15 billion in a listing as early as next year, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Those people also said plans—including deal size and timing—remain at an early stage and could change with market conditions.

Solidigm declined to comment. Separately, in a Sept. 4, 2026, Form 6-K, SK Hynix told the SEC that after Korean media reports of a pre-IPO raise, its overseas Solidigm brand subsidiary was reviewing various measures to strengthen its competitiveness but “no matters have been determined.”

Solidigm, based in Rancho Cordova, California, is the U.S.-based NAND flash memory and solid-state drive subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. It supplies enterprise SSDs used in servers, cloud infrastructure, and data centers, and has positioned high-capacity storage products for AI applications where growing data volumes demand more sophisticated storage—not graphics processors.

SK Hynix acquired Intel’s NAND memory and SSD business for about $9 billion in a deal announced in 2020 and launched Solidigm as a standalone subsidiary in 2021. Any eventual listing would be of the Solidigm unit, not a full flotation of parent SK Hynix.

This is separate from AI labs’ direct purchases of Nvidia GPUs. Solidigm’s pitch sits on the memory and storage side of the AI infrastructure buildout—NAND and enterprise SSDs that hold and serve model and training data—separate from GPU compute buys and from SK Hynix’s distinct high-bandwidth memory franchise that sits next to accelerators. The AI memory bottleneck is being monetized in public markets via a potential mega-cap NAND IPO.

A valuation of up to $150 billion—if it were achieved—would far exceed recent semiconductor IPO comps Reuters cited, including Arm Holdings’ roughly $54 billion valuation at its 2023 debut and Cerebras Systems’ approximately $56 billion fully diluted valuation in its 2026 IPO. Treat the $150 billion figure strictly as source-reported valuation context. It is not an official company target, not a bank mandate term sheet disclosed on the record, and not a priced IPO range.

Reuters also noted that a Solidigm listing would seek to tap strong investor demand for companies tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure—the same capital-markets appetite that has lifted semiconductor and hardware names—while giving investors a standalone read on a business that has become a key part of SK Hynix’s storage portfolio.

Earlier this month, Reuters separately reported that Solidigm is considering building a NAND flash factory in the United States, with upstate New York emerging as a leading candidate. That capacity story remains separate from, and unconfirmed relative to, any IPO timetable.

Last month, SK Hynix said it was considering measures to boost Solidigm’s competitiveness after media reports that the unit was exploring a pre-IPO fundraising round of about 5 trillion won (about $3.6 billion). Those earlier Korean-media figures are a separate rumor track from the Reuters bake-off and $150 billion context; the parent’s Sept. 4 Form 6-K emphasizes that no matters have been determined.

What is known: sources say Solidigm ran a bank bake-off this week for a possible U.S. IPO that could come as early as next year, with valuation context up to $150 billion and a potential raise of about $15 billion, per Reuters. What is not known: whether banks will be mandated, whether an S-1 or equivalent will be filed, what valuation the market would actually clear, or whether the company will proceed at all. SK Hynix’s on-record SEC position remains that no matters have been determined on the earlier pre-IPO-raise reports.