SK Hynix Files for $29 Billion Nasdaq Listing, Among the Largest Ever

SK Hynix has filed to raise up to 45.45 trillion won (about $29 billion) in a Nasdaq listing of American depositary shares, a deal that would rank among the largest equity offerings on record and stands as a marquee bet on the artificial-intelligence memory boom.

The South Korean chipmaker — the world's second-largest memory manufacturer and a critical supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI accelerators — said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that it would issue 17.79 million new common shares as ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker "SKHY". The company set a tentative listing date of July 10, while cautioning that the timetable could change. BofA Securities, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are managing the offering.

At the top of its indicated range, the sale would be the largest American depositary receipt offering ever — eclipsing the roughly $21.8 billion Alibaba raised in its 2014 New York debut and surpassing Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion flotation in 2019. SK Hynix will keep its primary listing in Seoul, where it trades on the Kospi under code 000660.

Where the $29 billion would go

The company earmarked the proceeds for the capacity it needs to keep pace with AI demand. In its filing it identified three priorities:

• its first fab in the Yongin semiconductor cluster, south of Seoul;
• an advanced chip-packaging plant in Cheongju, central to producing stacked HBM; and
• chipmaking equipment, including extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners.

The scale marks a sharp escalation from SK Hynix's first move toward a US listing. When it filed confidentially in March, a person familiar with the plan put the likely haul at no more than $14 billion. The company framed the offering as a way to reach investors locked out of its Korea-only stock.

The ADR listing will broaden our investor base, ultimately enabling proper valuation of corporate value, and elevate our status as a global company.

SK Hynix's standing has been transformed by the AI build-out. Its shares have climbed roughly 300% in 2026, its market value topped $1 trillion in May, and on June 22 it overtook Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable listed company on a common-stock basis. It supplies HBM for Nvidia's AI systems, including the forthcoming "Vera Rubin" platform.

A memory cycle running hot

The filing landed as fresh evidence mounted that the AI-memory upcycle is far from over. US rival Micron Technology reported quarterly revenue of nearly $42 billion, driven almost entirely by HBM demand, and guided to about $50 billion for the current quarter. Micron's adjusted gross margin hit a record 84.9%, and the company said its 2026 HBM output is sold out under multi-year contracts. Management projects the HBM market will expand from about $35 billion in 2025 to roughly $100 billion by 2028.

Those results reinforced the view that memory supply will stay tight, helping lift SK Hynix shares more than 11% on Thursday. SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won has warned the squeeze could persist for years. Speaking to reporters at the Computex trade show in early June, he said the group would double its total wafer capacity over five years. "There are a lot of obstacles and hurdles, but we will get over them and expand," he said, repeating a forecast that the AI-driven shortage will run until around 2030.

Why it matters beyond Asia

For global investors, the listing is less about the cash than about access. SK Hynix is one of the purest public proxies for AI-memory demand, but its Seoul-only quotation has made it awkward to own for many international funds. A Nasdaq line priced in dollars, settled through familiar depositary mechanics, lowers that barrier — and, analysts say, could narrow SK Hynix's long-standing valuation discount to Micron.

There is a European dimension. Luxembourg, the continent's largest investment-fund domicile, anchors thousands of cross-border funds with exposure to the semiconductor cycle through US- and Asia-listed equities; a liquid SK Hynix ADR offers such vehicles a more direct route into a company at the centre of the AI supply chain.

Risks remain. The memory business is famously cyclical, and capacity additions by SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung could eventually outrun demand. The company itself flagged that the offering's terms and timing are not final. For now, a near-$30 billion debut by a core AI supplier is among the clearest signals yet of where capital — and the chip cycle — is flowing.