SK Hynix, now South Korea’s most valuable company, filed to raise about $29 billion on the Nasdaq through American depositary receipts, the memory chipmaker disclosed in a regulatory filing on June 24.
The company plans to issue 17.79 million new shares valued at 45.45 trillion won, with 10 ADRs representing one common share, and has tentatively set July 10 for its debut. The figure is roughly double the up to $14 billion floated in earlier reports and, at the top of the range, would rank as the largest ADR sale on record, ahead of the $21.8 billion Alibaba raised in 2014. SK Hynix said the size could still change after bookbuilding.
The proceeds are unusually specific for a deal this size: the entire raise will fund capacity. SK Hynix named a chip fabrication plant in Yongin, an advanced-packaging fab in Cheongju, and equipment purchases that include extreme ultraviolet lithography scanners.
The company is also building in the United States for the first time, with a $4 billion packaging plant in Indiana. The listing keeps SK Hynix’s primary shares in Seoul while giving US investors a way to own its growth. The company said the move would broaden its investor base and let “its true corporate value to be properly evaluated,” and elevate its standing in what it called the epicenter of AI innovation. BofA Securities, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are managing the offering.
The raise caps a remarkable run. SK Hynix shares have soared more than 280% this year, lifting its market value above $1 trillion, and the company overtook longtime rival Samsung Electronics on annual profit for the first time in January, then briefly passed it in market capitalization this week.
As Nvidia’s largest memory partner, SK Hynix holds roughly 60% of the market for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the specialized chips that feed AI servers. Counterpoint research director MS Hwang called it the clear top player, with the best product and the lowest manufacturing cost.
Why It Matters
A US listing gives global investors direct access to one of the purest plays on AI demand and helps SK Hynix escape the lower valuations long applied to Korean stocks. The timing is opportune: HBM capacity for 2026 is sold out and shortages are forecast into 2027, and the offering lands as the memory market enters one of its strongest upcycles on record.
It also joins a packed pipeline of AI-linked listings, following SpaceX’s record debut and ahead of expected IPOs from OpenAI and Anthropic. The structure gives SK Hynix fresh dollars for fabs it has already committed to building.
The Risk in the Boom
The filing does not resolve the question that hangs over every memory cycle. The business is famously cyclical, yet the current upswing is being priced as though it will not turn, and SK Hynix is raising money to expand for demand stretching well beyond the years that are already sold out.
Concentration is another concern. Samsung and SK Hynix together account for more than 40% of South Korea’s benchmark Kospi, leaving the index heavily exposed to any supply-chain disruption or slowdown in data center spending. South Korea’s top financial regulator has also warned about leveraged products tied to the two chipmakers, a sign of unease about how much the rally now rests on a single theme.
