SK hynix's Solidigm roars back on AI storage demand with record sales and rising profits

AI Storage Shock: Solidigm's Rebound and the Sales Playbook You Can Use

Solidigm, SK hynix's U.S. NAND subsidiary, is flipping years of losses into momentum on the back of AI data center demand and a tight HDD supply chain. Industry sources project 9.3 trillion won in 2024 sales-its best since the acquisition-with an estimated 613 billion won in net profit.

Forecasts point higher: by 2026, sales could reach 11.8 trillion won with 1.4 trillion won in net profit. The driver is a shift to QLC SSDs for AI workloads as HDD lead times stretch and prices rise.

The Numbers Sellers Can Use

• 2024 sales: 9.3 trillion won (highest since SK's acquisition)
• 2024 estimated net profit: 613 billion won (second consecutive profitable year after last year's 830.7 billion won)
• 2026 outlook: 11.8 trillion won sales, 1.4 trillion won net profit
• HDD lead time: ~12 months for large orders; QLC SSD delivery: ~2 months
• QLC market share for the SK hynix-Solidigm alliance: 42% in 2024 to 51% projected next year (majority share)

What's Driving the Shift

AI has moved into an inference-heavy phase. Cold data becomes "hotter" as models repeatedly tap vast reference sets, pushing storage systems to serve more reads, more often.

Result: HDD demand spiked from a low base, supply hit a wall, and prices jumped. Buyers looking to build or refresh AI clusters are turning to QLC SSDs that ship faster and scale capacity without long delays.

Product Snapshot: High-Density QLC for AI Data Centers

Solidigm's QLC portfolio includes the D5-P5336 eSSD, offering up to 122TB per drive-built for capacity-centric AI data lakes and inference repositories. Faster time-to-deploy and rack-level density are resonating with buyers fighting backlogs and budget creep.

Explore the Solidigm D5-P5336

Competitive Context

Micron and Kioxia are expanding QLC output, and Samsung is increasing its QLC mix after a long focus on TLC. Even with rising competition, the consensus says Solidigm and SK hynix hold the advantage in QLC scale and shipments into AI use cases.

What QLC NAND is and why it matters (Micron)

Sales Playbook: How to Capture This Demand

• Targets: Hyperscalers, GPU cloud providers, AI platform teams, data-rich SaaS, media/streaming, genomics, mapping, security analytics, and enterprises building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) stacks.
• Buying triggers: HDD backorders, AI cluster expansions, new inference workloads, rising storage TCO, floor space/power constraints, SLA pressure on data retrieval.
• Pain points to probe: "We can't get HDDs until next year," cold data now accessed frequently, rack density and power budget limits, migration headaches, unpredictable pricing.
• Positioning that lands:
  • TCO vs. HDD under real access patterns (reads/latency/IOPS)
  • $ per TB-month + performance per rack as a combined metric
  • Predictable lead times and rollout speed for AI projects
  • Reliability at scale with modern QLC endurance management
• Proof kit to bring: POCs with real inference traces, order-to-ship timelines, reference architectures, and migration runbooks.
• Packaging ideas: Tiered QLC + TLC for mixed workloads, warm-cache layers, data reduction (compression/dedupe), migration services, financing with price protection.
• Urgency levers: HDD backlog reality, delivery slots for large QLC allocations, phased rollouts that hit near-term AI milestones.

Questions That Move Deals Forward

• What's your current lead time for the next 10-50PB of cold storage?
• How often does your "cold" data get touched by inference jobs?
• What is your $/TB-month including delays, power, and failed SLAs?
• Where are latency or throughput bottlenecks hurting model performance?
• What's the cost of waiting six to twelve months vs. shipping in two?

Signals to Watch

• HDD supply recovery or continued constraints
• QLC cost curves vs. HDD price trendlines
• Competitor QLC ramps and reference wins
• Procurement shifts to multi-vendor strategies for AI storage

Why This Matters for Your Pipeline

Solidigm's projected surge is a scoreboard for where spend is going: capacity SSDs that deliver now. If your accounts are blocked by HDD supply or performance bottlenecks, QLC-backed proposals can reopen stalled opportunities and pull forward AI timelines.

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Summary for Sales Teams

• Record 2024 outlook for Solidigm: 9.3T won sales, 613B won net profit; 2026 forecast at 11.8T/1.4T.
• HDD shortage + AI inference = stronger pull for QLC SSDs with faster delivery.
• Solidigm's 122TB-class drives address capacity, speed, and lead-time pain in AI data centers.
• Competitors are catching up, but SK hynix-Solidigm is expected to lead QLC market share into next year.