Broadcom Corp. is reportedly leading the bidding in an auction of Toshiba Corp.’s flash memory business, having offered to pay $20 billion, Bloomberg reported late last week, but the situation remains complicated.

Toshiba put its memory business up for auction in order to recapitalize after losing millions of dollars with its U.S. nuclear power business, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bloomberg said Broadcom’s bid is being financed by the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, as well as three Japanese banks: the Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Broadcom isn’t the only interested party, though. A second bid from private equity group Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co. LP, which includes the government-backed Development Bank of Japan and the Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, is set to offer $16.4 billion, Bloomberg reported. Western Digital Corp., which has already tried to block any sale due to its joint venture deals with Toshiba, is also a party to the KKR bid, and would take a 20 percent stake in Toshiba’s flash memory business.

However, Nikkei reports that the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan may ditch KKR and join with another bid from Bain Capital. The South Korean semiconductor firm SK Hynix Inc. is also involved with Bain Capital’s bid, which wants to pay $9 billion for just 51 percent of the business. SK Hynix would put up cash but have no direct involvement with the bid in order to appease Japanese regulators. Western Digital could also join with Bain’s bid, Bloomberg reported.

Whichever bid manages to attract the support of Japan’s government would likely be the front runner, one expert told Bloomberg. “Whoever INCJ decides to go with, is likely to be the winner, regardless of the size of the bid,” said Damian Thong, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., also known as Foxconn, is the other main bidder. It’s said to have put in the largest offer of $27 billion but faces opposition from the Japanese government, which doesn’t want its technologies to be sold to a Chinese company. Apple Inc. is also reportedly considering getting involved in the auction, further complicating matters. And there’s still the problem of Western Digital’s arbitration filing in relation to its joint ventures with Toshiba, which will very likely drag the whole process out for some time to come.

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