SK Hynix Raises $26.5 Bn as it Debuts on Nasdaq

SK Hynix has raised about $26.5 billion through its US listing after selling 177.9 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $149 each ahead of its Nasdaq debut as investors continue to back companies supplying the infrastructure behind the AI boom.

The South Korean memory chipmaker priced the offering at a 2.7% premium to the average price of its Seoul-listed shares over the previous three trading sessions. Its ADRs are scheduled to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker SKHY on July 10. 

SK Hynix’s US listing is the largest ever by a foreign company, surpassing Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s $25 billion debut in 2014. It is also the second-largest US stock sale on record, behind SpaceX’s offering. 

SK Hynix’s primary listing will remain in Seoul, while the ADR offering was underwritten by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

The proceeds will be used to finance new factories and equipment to increase production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are widely used in AI accelerators.

The US listing is also expected to improve the company’s visibility among global investors and help narrow its valuation gap with US-based Micron, despite SK Hynix holding a larger share of the HBM market. Micron currently trades at a higher forward price-to-earnings multiple than SK Hynix.

The company also continues to compete with Samsung Electronics for leadership in the memory chip market. While Samsung remains the world’s largest memory chipmaker by volume, SK Hynix has established an early lead in HBM.

SK Hynix has emerged as NVIDIA’s largest supplier of HBM chips, a position that has placed it at the centre of the AI infrastructure build-out. In May, the South Korean chipmaker crossed the $1 trillion market capitalisation mark, becoming the third Asian company to reach the milestone, following Samsung Electronics and TSMC.

Last month, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said SK Hynix would remain the company’s largest memory partner and added that shortages of advanced memory chips were likely to continue for several years because of strong demand.