South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix has raised approximately $26.5 billion through its U.S. American Depositary Receipt (ADR) offering, underscoring strong global investor appetite for one of the semiconductor industry’s biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom.
The company priced its ADRs at $149 each, according to a U.S. regulatory filing on Thursday, marking one of the largest semiconductor capital raisings in recent years as demand for AI infrastructure continues to reshape global technology markets.
The U.S.-listed shares begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker symbol “SKHY”, providing American investors with direct access to a company that has become indispensable to the rapidly expanding AI ecosystem.
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Investor demand proved exceptionally strong.
According to a person familiar with the transaction cited by Reuters, orders exceeded the number of shares available by more than seven times, highlighting continued confidence in companies supplying critical AI hardware even as broader semiconductor stocks have recently lost momentum.
The company said the ADRs were priced at a 2.7% premium to the average closing price of its Seoul-listed shares over the previous three trading sessions.
Earlier, SK Hynix had indicated an ADR reference price based on its July 3 closing price in Seoul, equivalent to about 242,500 won ($160.80) per ADR. Each ADR represents one-tenth of an ordinary share.
Following the announcement, SK Hynix shares rose 2.8% in early trading in Seoul on Friday, although the gain lagged the broader South Korean market, which advanced 4.5%.
The proceeds from the offering will be used to finance new semiconductor fabrication plants and manufacturing equipment as the company races to expand production capacity to meet surging demand for AI memory chips.
The capital raise also serves a broader objective. By establishing a U.S. listing, SK Hynix hopes to narrow its valuation gap with American rival Micron Technology, whose shares have historically commanded higher valuation multiples because of easier access to U.S. institutional investors.
Although SK Hynix controls a larger share of the advanced memory market, Micron currently trades at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 6.66 times, compared with 5.5 times for SK Hynix.
Daniel Newman, Chief Executive Officer of technology research firm Futurum Group, said the two companies each possess distinct competitive strengths.
“SK Hynix leads on share and Nvidia proximity, Micron competes on power efficiency, U.S. positioning, and momentum from third place,” he said.
The listing comes as SK Hynix continues competing with domestic rival Samsung Electronics for leadership in the global memory industry.
While Samsung remains the world’s largest memory chipmaker by production volume, SK Hynix has emerged as the industry’s dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, one of the most critical components used in artificial intelligence servers. HBM enables graphics processing units (GPUs) to process enormous amounts of data at extremely high speeds, making the technology essential for training and running advanced AI models.
The company’s leadership in HBM has transformed its fortunes.
More than a decade ago, SK Hynix made substantial investments in the technology at a time when many questioned whether the market would justify the cost.
Those long-term investments have now placed the company at the center of the global AI infrastructure boom.
“As long as there is demand for graphic processors and AI data centers, SK Hynix is indispensable,” said Yoo Hoi-jun, an electrical engineering professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
The company’s close relationship with Nvidia, the world’s leading AI chip designer, has further strengthened its position.
Last month, Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said SK Hynix would remain the company’s largest memory supplier and predicted that shortages of advanced memory chips are likely to persist for several more years because demand continues to outstrip production capacity.
Industry analysts expect that imbalance to continue supporting elevated prices for advanced memory products.
Rolf Bulk, Head of Semiconductors and Infrastructure at Futurum Equities, said AI demand continues expanding rapidly, particularly in data centers.
“AI demand keeps inflecting, currently driven mostly by strong datacenter CPU demand. HBM demand also remains strong: we expect the market to grow from about $65 billion this year to $120 billion next year and about $290 billion by 2030,” he said.
Those projections illustrate why investors continue viewing memory manufacturers as among the biggest long-term beneficiaries of artificial intelligence.
Although semiconductor stocks have experienced increased volatility in recent weeks amid concerns that AI infrastructure spending could eventually slow, SK Hynix remains one of the market’s standout performers. The company’s shares have fallen roughly 25% over the past two weeks, reflecting broader profit-taking across AI-related stocks.
Even after that pullback, however, SK Hynix stock has surged approximately 680% over the past 12 months, making it one of the world’s best-performing large-cap technology companies.
Remarkably, that extraordinary share price appreciation has still lagged the pace of the company’s earnings growth. Profits have increased so dramatically that each employee is expected to receive an annual performance bonus worth roughly $574,500, according to previous company disclosures, making SK Hynix one of South Korea’s most sought-after employers.
The company’s earnings growth has also compressed its valuation. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio has declined to 5.5 times, down from 7.9 times at the end of October, indicating that profits have expanded faster than its share price.
Ken Mahoney, Chief Executive Officer of Mahoney Asset Management, said SK Hynix’s competitive advantage extends beyond technology leadership.
“SK Hynix holds the edge in production scale and maturity. Across the board, since demand is far outweighing supply, they have had tremendous pricing power,” he said.
“So, generally speaking, their first mover advantage is and was their strength.”
The ADR offering is being underwritten by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, while the company’s primary stock market listing will remain on the Korea Exchange in Seoul.
Ahead of the transaction, SK Hynix disclosed that major institutional investors, including Baillie Gifford Overseas, investment funds managed by Coatue Management, and Situational Awareness Partners, had each expressed interest in purchasing portions of the offering worth up to a combined $7 billion.
Even so, some analysts believe the Nasdaq listing may have only a limited impact on the company’s domestic share valuation.
Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities, said SK Hynix will likely continue facing the so-called “Korea discount,” a long-standing phenomenon in which South Korean companies trade at lower valuation multiples than global peers because of investor concerns surrounding corporate governance and shareholder returns.
While a U.S. listing could broaden the company’s investor base and improve international visibility, Lee said it is unlikely on its own to eliminate the structural factors that have historically weighed on valuations of South Korean equities.
Nevertheless, the success of SK Hynix’s ADR offering reinforces investors’ conviction that demand for AI infrastructure remains robust. With advanced memory continuing to be one of the industry’s most constrained components, the company appears well positioned to remain a central player in the global artificial intelligence supply chain for years to come.