Reuters: SK Hynix's Solidigm Held Bank 'Bake-Off' for Possible 2027 US IPO Valuing NAND Unit at Up to $150 Billion

Solidigm, the US-based NAND flash and solid-state drive subsidiary of South Korea's SK Hynix, is considering an initial public offering as early as next year that could value the business at up to $150 billion, according to a Reuters report citing three people familiar with the matter. Reuters said one of those people and a fourth person described pitch meetings held this week with investment banks competing for roles on the offering, a process known in banking circles as a "bake-off," marking what Reuters called a concrete step toward what could become the largest-ever US semiconductor listing.

The Reuters report, as relayed by CORE and summarized by Seeking Alpha, did not identify the banks that took part. The three sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters, said the company could raise $15 billion in a US listing. They cautioned that the plans, including deal size and timing, remain at an early stage and could change depending on market conditions.

What a bake-off signals, and what remains unconfirmed

What a bake-off signals, and what remains unconfirmed

Sizing the number: $150 billion against a $9 billion purchase price

SK Hynix bought the NAND business from Intel in 2021 for $9 billion, structured as a multi-year payment deal of $7 billion upfront and roughly $1.9 billion completed in March 2025, according to Blocks and Files, which noted that payment schedule has now been fully completed, leaving SK Hynix as sole owner. Measured against that $9 billion acquisition cost, a $150 billion valuation would represent roughly 16.7 times the original purchase price ($150 billion divided by $9 billion), a figure calculated directly from those two reported numbers. That multiple is a mathematical comparison only, not a prediction of what any IPO would actually price at, and Reuters' sourcing was explicit that both the valuation figure and any raise amount remain provisional.

Ahead of this week's bake-off, separate Korean media reports had described a smaller pre-IPO fundraising step. Digitimes reported Solidigm was weighing a pre-IPO round of KRW5 trillion to KRW10 trillion, roughly $3.5 billion to $7 billion, while the Korea Economic Daily put the figure at approximately KRW5 trillion. Blocks and Files also reported that former SK Hynix president Roh Jong-won, who it said was the architect of the original Intel NAND acquisition, has set up a US private equity firm, Techbridge Investment, to invest in a future Solidigm IPO alongside Korean partner Stonebridge, targeting a joint investment of up to KRW2 trillion ($1.44 billion).

From carve-out losses to AI-driven profitability

Solidigm endured several years of losses after being separated from Intel but turned profitable in 2025 as demand for its high-capacity QLC drives rose and prices increased substantially, Blocks and Files reported. The business is anchored by a Rancho Cordova, California headquarters handling NAND and SSD research, sales and business operations, while its wafer fabrication takes place at a Dalian, China plant owned by a separate SK Hynix entity, SK Semiconductor (Dalian) Co.

On the technology side, Solidigm's current NAND generation trails SK Hynix's own flagship chips: it uses 192-layer floating-gate NAND focused on QLC for high capacity, compared with SK Hynix's 321-layer V9 and 375-layer V10 charge-trap designs, per Blocks and Files. Solidigm is reportedly developing 245 TB SSDs using more than 200 layers, due by the end of the year. Separately, the Korea Economic Daily's Ked Global unit reported Solidigm is considering building its first US manufacturing base as data-center investment drives demand for high-capacity storage.

On pricing, Morningstar equity analyst Jing Jie Yu was quoted by Morningstar as cautioning that the large memory price increases now possible "only exist because of such deep undersupply," and that as new supply comes online in 2027 and 2028, "supply/demand dynamics should improve tremendously, eroding the pricing power of memory players and leading to a cycle turn." That is an attributed forecast from Morningstar, not a Reuters claim, and on our reading it points to a potential headwind for exactly the pricing conditions that have helped Solidigm turn profitable.

Company response and corporate structure

Reuters reported that Solidigm declined to comment on the IPO report and that SK Hynix did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SK Hynix's most recent public statement on the broader matter came in an SEC disclosure issued in early September, in which the company said Solidigm was "reviewing various measures to strengthen its competitiveness" but that "no matters have been determined," per Blocks and Files. SK Hynix said it would update markets either when specific details are confirmed or within three months of that report's date. Blocks and Files also reported that SK Hynix is setting up a separate US-based AI company, AICo, which will own the Solidigm business and pursue other opportunities, though details of how that structure would interact with any IPO were not specified in the available reporting.

Bottom Line

Reuters' bake-off report is the most concrete signal yet that a Solidigm listing is moving from speculation toward active preparation, with Reuters' anonymous sourcing behind both the $150 billion valuation figure and the potential $15 billion raise. But the same sourcing stresses that deal size, timing and structure are unsettled, SK Hynix has not confirmed a decision, and separately attributed Morningstar commentary on memory pricing suggests the favorable NAND market conditions underpinning Solidigm's 2025 turnaround may not last through the 2027 window under discussion.