(Oct 8): SK Hynix Inc’s Solidigm has picked lead banks for its US initial public offering (IPO) next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The South Korean firm’s flash memory unit selected Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley to work on the offering, which could raise about US$10 billion (RM40.9 billion), the people said. Separately, Solidigm is working with the two lenders to finalise a pre-IPO funding round, the people said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and UBS Group AG have also been tapped for Solidigm’s IPO, the people said. A listing could take place as soon as 2027 and value the company at as much as US$100 billion, Bloomberg News has reported.

Deliberations are ongoing, details could change and more banks may be added, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Reuters was first to report the size of the offering. 

A spokesperson for SK Hynix said its subsidiary Solidigm is reviewing various options to strengthen its business competitiveness, but no specific plans have been confirmed at this time. Representatives of Solidigm, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Citigroup declined to comment. UBS didn’t respond to requests for comments.

The second-largest memory firm’s American depositary receipts fell 4.3% last Friday as a lock-up agreement on insiders selling shares lifted following its US$26.5 billion listing in July, the biggest ever for a non-US company.

The pace of US IPOs has slowed despite a string of megadeals, with companies including smart ringmaker Oura joining a handful of others postponing their expected debuts in recent weeks. While Anthropic PBC is expected to go public before the US Thanksgiving holiday, other companies are aiming for listings next year including its artificial intelligence rival OpenAI and flash memory maker Kioxia Holdings Corp.

Solidigm was introduced in 2021 after SK Hynix acquired Intel Corp’s flash memory business and renamed it. The unit of the South Korean company has recast itself as a provider of high-capacity drives used in AI data centres.

In August, Solidigm struck a deal with CoreWeave Inc to sell enterprise solid-state drive capacity which could support its AI cloud platform. Other customers include Vast Data, Dell Technologies Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd, according to the website.

Rancho Cordova, California-based Solidigm has 13 locations globally, including in Mexico, Canada and China, and has more than 2,000 employees.

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee