FADU Aims to Raise Global SSD Controller Market Share to 30% by 2026

Korean fabless “unicorn” firm FADU is gearing up for a leap from a specialized solid-state drive (SSD) controller design firm to a comprehensive global semiconductor company, leveraging its forthcoming IPO as a stepping stone.

During an IPO briefing session at 63 Square in Yeouido, Seoul, on July 24, FADU CEO Lee Ji-hyo said, “Among the 30 to 40 SSD controller design companies worldwide, we are at the forefront in terms of technology. Within the next 2 to 3 years, all data centers around the globe will be using our products.”

Earlier this year, FADU achieved unicorn status as the first fabless semiconductor company in Korea with a company valuation of 1.08 trillion won (US$843.09 million), successfully completing pre-IPO fundraising. The company is targeting a listing on KOSDAQ on Aug. 7 under the technology-specialized listing system with an expected market capitalization of 1.4898 trillion won, near the upper end of the expected offer price range.

Leveraging its expertise in SSD controller design, FADU is actively establishing partnerships with various global data center companies focusing on high performance, low power consumption, and miniaturization. In particular, the company’s capabilities were validated when it supplied SSD controllers to the data centers of Meta, formerly known as Facebook, through a collaboration with SK hynix last year.

With its cutting-edge SSD controller design technology, FADU plans to increase its current market share of about 1 percent in the SSD controller market to the 30 percent range by 2026. The CEO said, “Global data centers, which currently use around 50 million SSD controllers, will demand up to 100 million units in the next 2 to 3 years.” The company supplied approximately one million SSD controllers, accounting for about 1 percent market share last year. To achieve the ambitious goal of 30 percent market share, FADU needs to ramp up its supply to 30 million units by 2025 and 2026, which would represent a thirty-fold increase from the current volume.

Furthermore, FADU is actively engaged in research and development in various fields, including power semiconductors, communication semiconductors, computational semiconductors, and memory storage. The CEO emphasized, “We will not stop at the success of SSD controllers. We will grow into a comprehensive global semiconductor company catering to global data centers, designing and mass-producing a variety of products.”