TDK Corp.’s magnetic-heads business for hard-disk drives (HDDs) is reportedly the subject of a two-way acquisition dogfight between Seagate and Toshiba.

Bloomberg reports that both firms have held talks, with Seagate believed to have submitted a higher offer than its rival in the summer. No word was given as to the amount being placed on the table; any potential acquisition would be in the billions given TDK is the world’s sole independent maker of magnetic-recording heads for HDD, the bit of a drive that actually writes and reads data.

Both firms wooing TDK are customers, and the vendor is also supplying their HDD rival Western Digital.

Any potential purchase could face antitrust scrutiny, given it would provide one of the major HDD players potential control of a key component used in rival devices.

Per Bloomberg, Seagate and Western Digital design magnetic heads in-house, only turning to TDK in the event of demand fluctuations. Toshiba, meanwhile, relies solely on TDK, meaning if Seagate were to purchase the unit it could result in severe production headaches.

Despite losing ground to solid-state drives (SSDs), HDDs are still critical for data center buildout. They act as the workhorse for growing data infrastructure stacks, providing the storage means to hold copious amounts of data that operators need for inference workloads.

No formal word has come out regarding a reported sale, with Bloomberg suggesting it could provide cash TDK needs to accelerate investment in growth areas like its battery and sensor segments.