SK Hynix's Solidigm weighs IPO at up to $150 billion, about 16 times what it paid for Intel's unit

Solidigm, the U.S. solid-state drive business owned by South Korea's SK Hynix, is weighing an initial public offering that could value it at up to $150 billion, Reuters reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with the matter. The company could raise about $15 billion, and it held pitch meetings with banks competing for roles on the deal this week. Bloomberg separately reported that a U.S. listing is being considered as soon as 2027.

Nothing is filed. The people told Reuters the size and timing are at an early stage and could change with market conditions. Solidigm declined to comment and SK Hynix did not immediately respond, Reuters said.

The number behind the number

SK Hynix built Solidigm out of Intel's NAND flash memory and SSD business, which it agreed to buy for about $9 billion in a deal announced in 2020. A $150 billion valuation would be roughly 16.7 times that purchase price, six years later. That is the scale of the rerating AI data-center demand has done to storage.

The clearest yardstick is the one U.S.-listed company that sells the same kind of product. Sandisk, which makes NAND flash and SSDs, was trading at $1,782.98 early Friday afternoon, up 1.67%, for a market value of about $260.9 billion, according to Nasdaq data. At the top of the reported range, Solidigm would be valued at about 57% of Sandisk. Sandisk's own 52-week range, from about $94 to about $2,354, shows how violently investors have repriced memory makers over the past year.

The deal size matters too. A $15 billion raise on a $150 billion valuation means selling about 10% of the company. That is a small float for a listing this big. Small floats in hot sectors tend to trade on scarcity early, and they also leave most of the stock with the parent for a later sale.

How it compares

Figures for Arm and Cerebras are as cited by Reuters. At the top of its range, Solidigm would be the largest U.S. semiconductor IPO on record, Reuters said.

What traders are watching

• Whether the valuation survives a filing. Numbers from bank pitch meetings are often the high end. The first public S-1 will show Solidigm's actual revenue and margins, which SK Hynix does not break out in a way that settles the question today.
• Read-across to listed peers. A private mark at more than half of Sandisk's value is a data point for anyone pricing storage exposure. The flip side is supply: a $15 billion offering, followed later by further SK Hynix sales, adds a lot of new NAND stock for the same pool of investors.
• U.S. manufacturing. Reuters reported earlier this month that Solidigm is considering a NAND chip factory in the U.S., with upstate New York a leading candidate. A factory plan would give the IPO a use of proceeds.

Related: ADARx prices its upsized IPO and more stock news.

Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, Seeking Alpha, Nasdaq.com market data. Multiples and percentages are Chronicle calculations from those figures. This is market information, not investment advice.