SK Hynix is pushing to list on a US stock exchange as early as August, the South Korean memory chipmaker said this week, aiming to reach a wider pool of investors riding the AI boom. The listing would take the form of American Depositary Receipts, with the company’s primary listing staying on the Korea Exchange. Reuters reported that SEC clearance for the application could arrive the week of June 22. SK Hynix said it plans to issue ADRs in 2026 but has not set the size or timing.
The company filed confidentially in March. A source told Reuters the offering could raise as much as $14 billion, up from earlier estimates of $6.7 billion to $10 billion as AI demand has accelerated. Proceeds would help fund new chip plants in South Korea and the US. Investor reception has reportedly been “tremendously positive” during early roadshow meetings, attributed to strong AI demand and the company’s grip on the memory market. South Korea’s Meritz Securities said a smooth approval could put the debut in mid-August.
SK Hynix is the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker and the leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the specialized chips that feed data into AI servers. It held 57% of global HBM revenue in the fourth quarter of last year, ahead of Samsung and US-based Micron. The company is Nvidia’s largest memory partner. Last week the two signed a multi-year deal to develop next-generation memory for AI data centers, covering Nvidia’s Vera Rubin systems, Vera CPUs and other platforms. CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia already buys billions of dollars of SK Hynix memory each year. The stock has climbed 240% in 2026, and in late May the company briefly topped a $1 trillion market value, the third Asian firm to do so after TSMC and Samsung.
Why Investors Care
- A US listing gives investors a direct, liquid way to bet on the memory side of the AI trade without trading on Korean exchanges.
- It helps SK Hynix escape the so-called Korea discount, the lower valuations long applied to South Korean companies.
- The move invites direct comparison with Micron, the only HBM maker currently listed in the US. Analysts are split on whether that pressures Micron’s premium or lifts the whole sector.
- Success hinges on HBM pricing and whether the AI memory shortage lasts as long as bulls expect.
The AI Memory Boom
SK Hynix has become one of the clearest beneficiaries of AI spending, since every major AI buildout needs the memory it leads in. If the timeline holds, its debut would land in an unusually crowded stretch for US listings. OpenAI and Anthropic are expected to go public in the second half of the year, with SpaceX having just priced the largest IPO on record. That pipeline reflects a rush of capital toward AI infrastructure, from chips and memory to data centers and the models themselves. For SK Hynix, the listing would turn its Nvidia-anchored position into access to the deepest equity market in the world.
