Tech company Solidigm invests over $100M to grow operations in Rancho Cordova
As some businesses across the Greater Sacramento region are announcing layoffs and closures, one high-tech company in Rancho Cordova is actually expanding.
If you're watching a YouTube video or surfing the net, there's a chance that data is being stored on computer drives created by the Rancho Cordova-based company, Solidigm.
The company creates solid state drives that are about the size of a deck of cards. Each one can store 122 terabytes of information — enough to hold the entire Wikipedia text database 5,000 times.
It's the type of technology that's needed to fuel artificial intelligence advancements.
"The more you generate data, the more you need to store it, the more you need to process it, and that is where Solidigm comes in," said Ashraf Abdelwly, Solidigm corporate services chief.
Solidigm's global headquarters and research labs are located on a four-building campus, just a block away from Rancho Cordova City Hall.
Company leaders say they chose to locate here because of the city's affordability and the region's pool of high-tech workers.
"You have the perfect mix of many key players that support the business and fuel the business," Abdelwly said.
Company leaders say they're now expanding, adding more local jobs and modernizing their research lab capabilities.
"We invested over $75 million in our R&D center and over $30 million in our office space for a total of over $100 million in building capabilities here in Rancho Cordova that is fueling memory and storage advancements," Abdelwly said.
"They bring good-paying jobs and also provide jobs for our local residents," said Amanda Norton, Rancho Cordova economic development director.
Rancho Cordova officials are hoping Solidigm helps attract other high-tech companies, as the city tries to position itself as a leader in artificial intelligence jobs.
"We recognize that's going to be the next wave," Norton said. "We're in it and we're just riding it with everybody else."
The company was founded four years ago, and many of the original employees previously worked at the Intel campus in Folsom.
