SolidigmのVPが語るPCIe 6.0 SSD、次世代フローティングゲートNAND、液冷ストレージなど

In an interview with Tom’s Hardware Premium, Solidigm's Avi Shetty discusses the future of high-capacity SSDs, Floating-Gate NAND, PLC memory, PCIe 6.0 storage, liquid-cooled SSDs, Nvidia's Storage Next vision, and why the company believes AI will drive demand for even denser NAND flash-based storage technologies. In an interview with Tom’s Hardware Premium, Solidigm's Avi Shetty discusses the future of high-capacity SSDs, Floating-Gate NAND, PLC memory, PCIe 6.0 storage, liquid-cooled SSDs, Nvidia's Storage Next vision, and why the company believes AI will drive demand for even denser NAND flash-based storage technologies. <p>Anton Shilov has been in the PC industry since 1990s playing games, building PCs, and writing stories about pretty much everything that relates to PCs, Macs, smartphones, tablets, and even fab equipment. Over his career, he has worked at a variety of high-ranking websites, including AnandTech, EE Times, TechRadar, X-bit Labs, and now Tom's Hardware. He is also a regular features contributor to Tom's Hardware Premium, writing about the latest developments in the semiconductor industry and related tech news and roadmaps. When Anton is not reading or writing about something high-tech, he is probably watching a good movie, playing a video game, or spending time with his family.</p> Solidigm is arguably one of the most mysterious storage companies in the industry today. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SK hynix , yet unlike its parent company, which produces charge-trap flash memory, it uses floating-gate 3D NAND memory that it develops and manufactures internally at a dedicated fab in Dalian, China. Solidigm originates from Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), the company's NAND and SSD business unit, which used to have a unique technology strategy that differed from that of other flash and drive producers. To that end, it is not surprising that Solidigm also has a unique positioning as it only offers data center drives , most of which are based on floating-gate memory and proprietary in-house designed controllers. Furthermore, Solidigm is a fully vertically integrated company. At Computex 2026 , we sat down with Avi Shetty, who is vice president of AI ecosystem, Solutions & Market Enablement at Solidigm. Before his current position at Solidigm, he spent 14.5 years at Intel's storage division, so he has deep knowledge both about technology and the market. During our conversation, we discussed how Solidigm keeps evolving, including floating-gate NAND memory, advanced packaging technologies, next-generation SSDs, liquid-cooled SSDs, and more. Anton Shilov: Could you introduce yourself to our readers and describe what do you do at Solidigm? Avi Shetty: My name is Avi Shetty. I work at Solidigm, where I help lead AI solutions and ecosystem initiatives. My team works with global platform providers, software ISVs, and ODMs to ensure Solidigm solutions are validated, benchmarked, and included in reference designs at both the device and cluster levels, enabling customers to fully utilize our products. A part of SK hynix that acts independently Anton Shilov: You were previously a part of Intel. How is the integration going? Are you now fully integrated part of SK hynix, or do you operate independently? Avi Shetty: Let me provide some background. While Solidigm was established in December 2021, our history goes back decades. Many of us came from Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), which developed Intel’s NAND SSDs for both client and data center markets. In 2021, SK hynix acquired Intel’s NAND and SSD business and established Solidigm. Since December 2021, we have operated as a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of SK hynix, headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California. (Image credit: Solidigm) Anton Shilov: So, you are part of SK hynix, but still maintain a degree of independence? Avi Shetty: Absolutely. We operate as an independent subsidiary of SK hynix. Our strategy is focused entirely on enterprise SSDs. Every bit of [floating gate] NAND [at our fab in Dalian, China] we produce goes into enterprise storage solutions. This is one of the ways we differentiate ourselves from competitors such as Samsung and Micron, which also serve mobile and client markets. We made a deliberate decision to focus exclusively on enterprise storage and AI. We are also fully vertically integrated. We manufacture our own NAND, develop our own controllers, write our own firmware, and design our own SSDs. While we work with manufacturing partners to build products, we control the entire technology stack. I also believe we are the only company with access to two different NAND architectures. Through SK hynix we have access to charge trap flash (CTF) technology, and we continue to develop floating gate NAND technology for our high-density QLC SSD products. Anton Shilov: What is Solidigm's current share of the enterprise SSD market? Avi Shetty: Approximately 24%. That is enterprise SSDs only. We do not participate in any other NAND markets. As of the first quarter of 2025, plus or minus a few percentage points, our measured enterprise SSD market share is approximately 24%. We evaluate market-share data quarterly and semiannually, and that is the latest figure we’ve publicly discussed. Anton Shilov: How much of your business today is concentrated in high-capacity SSDs versus higher-performance products? Avi Shetty: High-density SSDs now represent a significant portion of our business. Because Solidigm is privately held, we do not publicly disclose that breakdown. We report our financial metrics through our parent company, SK hynix. What I can tell you is that both our 61TB-class and 122TB-class products became customer favorites almost immediately after launch. Demand for high-density storage has been extremely strong. Anton Shilov: I assume you also work directly with hyperscalers? Avi Shetty: We work with a broad range of customers globally. That includes U.S. cloud service providers, Chinese cloud service providers, OEMs around the world, NeoCloud providers, software ISVs, and channel partners. We maintain customer support, engineering, and sales organizations globally. Our business spans the Americas, EMEA, China, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. Anton Shilov: Which customer segment represents the largest opportunity for growth right now? Traditional cloud providers or something else? Avi Shetty: We intentionally maintain a diversified customer base. What is interesting is how quickly new segments emerge. For example, the NeoCloud market has existed for some time, but AI-focused infrastructure providers such as CoreWeave, Lambda, Crusoe, and Nebius have become much more important over the last two years. Before the AI boom, these companies represented only a small portion of demand. Today, they are becoming a meaningful part of the market. As AI infrastructure continues to expand, Solidigm is adapting both its customer strategy and product portfolio to support these emerging deployments while continuing to serve our traditional customers. Floating gate NAND in 2026 CTF NAND used by major memory makers has approached 276 - 286 active layers, whereas Solidigm's floating gate flash is still at 192 layers, meaning that the company is somewhat behind some of its rivals in terms of active layers as of mid-2026. It is set to catch up with its next generation that will have over 200 layers, but only in the second half of this year. However, floating gate NAND memory still has a number of advantages over CTF, particularly for applications that Solidigm targets. Floating gate uses a conductive polysilicon island to store charge, which provides excellent cell isolation — charge stays well-contained and is less likely to spread to or interfere with neighboring cells — and this is particularly important for 3D QLC NAND with very high layer counts. In addition, Solidigm claims that floating gate gives a strong voltage threshold window and better cell isolation, which enables the company to keep scaling QLC more while maintaining good reliability. Anton Shilov: Are you still producing floating gate NAND, and do you intend to continue? Avi Shetty: Absolutely. We introduced our first QLC foating gate NAND product in 2018, and today we are on our fourth generation of QLC NAND. Our flagship high-capacity product currently ships with 192-layer floating gate NAND technology and powers our 122TB SSD. Tom's Hardware Tom's Hardware Anton Shilov: Haven't you also announced a larger drive? Avi Shetty: We have announced a higher-capacity product and expect it to become available later this year. Anton Shilov: The 256TB-class drive? Avi Shetty: Correct. Approximately 245TB usable capacity. Anton Shilov: So you are going to have a roughly 245TB SSD available this year? Avi Shetty: Correct. Anton Shilov: What advantages does Floating-Gate NAND provide? Avi Shetty: Floating gate NAND gives us scalability. We have consistently been first in the industry to push storage density in standard form factors. We were the first to introduce a 30TB SSD, then a 60TB SSD, and later a 122TB SSD. We have been shipping the 122TB drive for nearly five quarters. We launched it in the fourth quarter of 2024, and it has since become our flagship product. It is probably our most popular product of 2025. The reason customers like the 122TB drive is efficiency. When you look at AI data centers, customers want low power consumption, scalability, and performance. While this particular product is a PCIe Gen4 solution, our roadmap continues to increase both density and bandwidth. You will see future products based on PCIe Gen5 and PCIe Gen6. The real attraction of the 122TB SSD is scale. In a 1U server, you can install 24 of these drives and get nearly 3PB of storage in a single rack unit. If you look at the AI data pipeline — from training to archiving — the first and last stages require massive datasets. That is where these high-capacity SSDs are