SK Hynix paid Intel $8.8 billion for NAND. The IPO talk is $150 billion.
SK Hynix is fielding bank pitches to list Solidigm, the storage unit it built from Intel's $8.8 billion NAND exit, at up to $150 billion. Per the reports the offering covers the NAND and SSD unit only; the HBM business powering the AI boom stays with the Korean parent.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
The bake-off that would dwarf every chip listing before it
Solidigm held pitch meetings this week with banks competing for roles in its IPO, three people familiar with the matter say: a listing as soon as next year, valued at up to $150 billion and raising about $15 billion 1. SK Hynix shares rose about 2.9% on the news Friday 2.
Seventeen times what Intel was paid
SK Hynix assembled Solidigm out of Intel's NAND and SSD business, paying $6.6 billion in December 2021 and $2.2 billion in March 2025, $8.8 billion in all 3. At the top of that talk, the deal would be the largest US semiconductor listing on record, nearly triple Arm's 2023 debut or Cerebras' arrival this year 13, and reset what public markets pay for AI-infrastructure hardware 4.
At up to $150 billion, Solidigm's talk dwarfs every US chip IPO before it
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Arm, 2023 debut | $54B |
| Solidigm, price talk (estimate) | $150B |
| Cerebras, 2026 IPO | $56B |
The half of memory that bled is the half for sale
Solidigm sells 122.88-terabyte data-center SSDs into AI workloads 3. It has also been the money loser: SK Hynix has grappled with years of losses at the business since the 2020 deal, through a prolonged NAND downturn 5.
Its sole NAND fab sits in Dalian, China 5. A US plant, with upstate New York a leading candidate, would cut that exposure, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has threatened tariffs of up to 100% on Korean chipmakers that do not build in America 56.
The timing suits the seller. In its latest reported quarter, the three months ended March 2026, SK Hynix booked $34.9 billion of revenue, up 191% year on year, with $25.0 billion of operating income 7.
What stays in Seoul
Per the reports, the listing covers Solidigm, the NAND flash and SSD subsidiary; SK Hynix's DRAM and high-bandwidth memory business is not part of what is on offer 13. SK Hynix is the leading HBM supplier and, per Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, the AI chipmaker's largest partner 8.
It already tapped US investors once this year: $26.5 billion raised in July at $149 an ADR, oversubscribed more than sevenfold, the biggest US debut by a foreign company 89. NAND is viewed as less strategically sensitive than HBM, one Reuters source says 5.
Nothing signed, and the window is tight
SK Hynix says options are under review and no plan is confirmed; Solidigm declined to comment 1. A pre-IPO round of about $3.6 billion surfaced a month ago and remains undecided 15. The tape argues patience: of the two dozen-plus companies that have filed publicly since early July, nine have made it to market, and five of this year's ten largest IPOs trade below their offer price 10.
The seller keeps the HBM franchise
Watch for bank mandates from this week's bake-off, the pre-IPO round, and the first standalone Solidigm financials in a filing 1. The seller keeps the HBM franchise; the buyers get the NAND cycle.
How this brief was made
01Gathered & sourced365 channels · 2,273 articles▾
Agents swept 365 channels and ingested 2,273 articles, then de-duplicated and ranked them for signal.
02Verified & cross-validated10 claims · 24 data feeds▾
Every one of 10 load-bearing claims was checked against primary sources, with 24 live data feeds reconciling the figures and charts.
- 1Reuters via MSN, "Exclusive: SK Hynix's Solidigm weighs IPO that could value the unit at up to $150 billion, sources say", 25 September 2026
- 2Investing.com via Yahoo Finance, "SK Hynix's Solidigm said to mull IPO that could value unit at $150B", 25 September 2026
- 3StockTwits via Yahoo Finance, "SK Hynix's U.S.-Based Solidigm Unit Reportedly Weighs IPO", 25 September 2026
- 4Finimize, "SK Hynix's Solidigm Eyes A Massive US IPO", 25 September 2026
- 5Reuters via MSN, "SK Hynix's Solidigm unit is weighing NAND memory chip factory in US, sources say", 18 September 2026
- 6Insider Monkey via Yahoo Finance, "SK Hynix (SKHY) Weighs a U.S. NAND Plant. Would Lower China Risk Justify the Cost?", 25 September 2026
- 7Sharadar quarterly fundamentals from SK hynix's SEC filings, retrieved 26 September 2026
- 8Reuters via The Star, "SK Hynix raises $26.5 billion in US offering after pricing ADRs at $149", 9 July 2026
- 9The Korea Times, "SK hynix prices its mega US listing at $149 per share", 10 July 2026
- 10Briefs.co, "Two IPOs Hit Pause As Anthropic's Debut Lingers, Nudging Caution Into a Hot Market", 23 September 2026
03Reviewed & edited1 human editor▾
One editor read the draft against the evidence, tuned the framing, and signed off before it shipped.
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