Four years after Intel spinoff, Rancho Cordova-based Solidigm launches new AI lab
The drive is about the size of a deck of playing cards. But, company executives say, it could store every movie released in the 1990s.
It’s a technological feat by Solidigm — the Rancho Cordova-based memory storage company — and evidence of the competition, among tech companies, to meet the AI-induced demand for processing power and storage.
“We’re setting the stage for this just massive wave of AI growth that’s going to come in the next 10 to 20 years,” said Greg Matson, Solidigm’s head of products and marketing. “And we’re right at the beginning.”
Solidigm, now four years removed from its $9 billion spinoff from Intel, is competing for market share, vying to offer industry giants like Oracle and Microsoft the most efficient — and therefore, most cost-effective — tech for data centers.
The company on Wednesday announced that it had established an “AI Central Lab” where the company and its customers will test their software against Solidigm’s products. And internally, it plans to hold pitch-style competitions where employees can win thousands of dollars for coming up with means of improving Solidigm’s efficiency with AI.
Matson said the new lab is outfitted with equipment that is typically only available to large companies like Microsoft and Google, due to its cost and limited availability. The site, which it established with the help of a Rancho Cordova-based startup, FarmGPU, will open up the company’s equipment to Solidigm employees, smaller companies developing software, or university students.
“Those technologies were previously relegated to a very small number of exceptionally large customers,” Matson said.
Since Intel sold Solidigm, its memory business, to South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix for $9 billion in 2021, Solidigm has set up its global headquarters in Rancho Cordova, where it employs nearly 700 people today in administrative roles and research and development. The company has manufacturing, design and regional offices across North America, and in Europe and Asia, with a global workforce of more than 1,800.
Executives said the company isn’t just equipping the outside world to use AI: In May it launched an internal program, SolidigmGPT, to assist employees with day-to-day tasks. And to boost adoption, leaders plan to host “Demo Days,” where employees will pitch internal AI uses, for a chance to win $5,000 per team.
“We are moving towards an AI-centric company, outside as well as inside,” said Lawrence Franklyn, Solidigm’s chief information officer. “It is absolutely required — to keep pace with what is going on in the industry.”
Franklyn said the interest in the competition has been so great, the first events will only showcase about 40% of the entries submitted.
He’s confident that using AI more broadly will give Solidigm an edge against its global competitors. Already, some tasks that once took three months for a team of engineers are now accomplished in a couple of days, Franklyn said.
“We’re not looking to reduce the number of employees or anything. We want to do more with what we have,” Matson said. “That’s the whole game with AI.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Lawrence Franklyn is Solidigm’s chief information officer. His last name was misspelled in an earlier version of the story.
