The American market is gradually preparing for a new wave of major technology IPOs. While private companies are leveraging investors’ strong interest in rapidly growing technology sectors to raise capital, a similar opportunity is emerging for manufacturers of artificial intelligence infrastructure. One of the largest listings next year could be Solidigm — a manufacturer of NAND memory and server SSDs owned by South Korea’s SK hynix.
Solidigm is considering an IPO in the US to raise about $15 billion, with a potential company valuation of $150 billion. The company has already held meetings with investment banks that are vying to participate in the offering. If these figures remain unchanged, the IPO could become the largest in the US semiconductor sector. For comparison, Arm was valued at approximately $54 billion when it went public in 2023.
The timing is opportune, as the AI boom is sharply increasing demand from data centers not only for GPUs and HBM memory but also for systems capable of storing vast amounts of data. Solidigm specializes in high‑capacity solid‑state drives for servers, positioning it to benefit directly from the expansion of computing infrastructure.
The business itself emerged as a result of a deal between SK hynix and Intel worth about $9 billion. In 2021, Intel’s NAND and SSD business was transferred to Solidigm as part of the acquisition. The company’s headquarters are located in California, but its largest production facility is in Dalian, China, a location that offers relatively low production costs while also exposing the business to significant geopolitical risks.
Now, SK hynix is preparing to expand its Chinese production again. The Solidigm plant produces about 100,000 NAND wafers per month, and its capacity is expected to increase by 50% in 2027, reaching approximately 150,000 wafers. The company also plans to begin producing 3D QLC NAND with more than 200 layers, primarily aimed at manufacturing ultra-high-capacity SSDs for enterprise customers.
This represents an ambitious strategy. Solidigm is preparing for an IPO while significantly expanding production, just as global NAND supply is expected to begin approaching demand in 2027. If demand from AI infrastructure continues to grow at the current rate, the additional capacity will allow for increased revenue. However, if the memory market shifts toward oversupply, downward pressure on prices could undermine profitability shortly after the company goes public.
An additional challenge is the geography of production. Solidigm is considering building its own NAND factory in New York State. Such a project would make it possible to diversify production and reduce dependence on China, which is especially important given the US export restrictions and Washington’s growing pressure on semiconductor manufacturers.
However, manufacturing in the US would be more expensive than in China or South Korea. The company would therefore need to strike a balance between geopolitical stability and production costs. A potential IPO could provide the capital needed to address this challenge. Ahead of the listing, SK hynix is also reportedly seeking to raise around $3.6 billion for Solidigm.
For the parent company, the IPO offers another advantage. SK hynix is already incurring significant costs to expand memory production in South Korea, so turning Solidigm into an independent public company will partially shift the financing of further growth to the stock market. At the proposed $150 billion valuation, Solidigm would be worth almost 17 times what SK hynix originally paid Intel for the relevant assets.
This is precisely what makes the potential listing particularly significant. A few years ago, Intel’s NAND business was an asset that the American manufacturer decided to sell for $9 billion. Now, amid the AI boom, the company built on its foundation could achieve a valuation of $150 billion and raise another $15 billion in capital.
The timing coincides with broader bullish sentiment toward AI-related stocks. One recent example came on the morning of Thursday, October 1, when Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.38%, outpacing Dow futures (+0.19%) and S&P 500 futures (+0.23%), driven in large part by Micron’s upbeat memory-chip outlook and its $32 billion in customer commitments. This strength in semiconductor stocks suggests continued investor appetite for AI infrastructure exposure, which could work in Solidigm’s favor as it considers a potential $150 billion valuation.
Thus, Solidigm’s IPO could serve as a test of how far investors are willing to extend the AI premium beyond GPU manufacturers. If the market accepts the proposed valuation, it would suggest that investors are assigning substantial AI-driven premiums not only to computing accelerators but also to more traditional segments of the semiconductor industry — including NAND memory and data storage systems.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
