SK Hynix Files for Record $29B Nasdaq Listing

SK Hynix, the world's dominant supplier of the memory chips that power AI systems, filed on June 24 to raise approximately $29 billion through a Nasdaq listing that would rank among the largest share sales in US history. The South Korean chipmaker plans to issue 17.79 million new shares as American depositary receipts under the ticker SKHY, with trading expected to begin July 10, according to CNBC.

The Scale of the Offering

The $29 billion target would eclipse both Alibaba's 2014 US listing and Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion IPO from 2019 in scale, according to Yahoo Finance. Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are managing the offering.

The listing is substantially larger than what the company had initially signaled. When SK Hynix filed confidentially for a US listing in March, sources put the potential raise at no more than $14 billion. The doubling reflects both the company's surging valuation and its confidence in US investor appetite for AI infrastructure exposure.

SK Hynix said the proceeds will fund construction of Phase 1 of its massive Yongin semiconductor cluster in South Korea, expansion of its Cheongju advanced packaging plant, and equipment investments including EUV lithography machines. The company is also building its first American production site, a $4 billion packaging facility in Indiana.

Why SK Hynix Dominates AI Memory

High-bandwidth memory has become the single most supply-constrained component in the global AI infrastructure race. HBM stacks multiple layers of DRAM and connects them directly to AI accelerators, providing the massive bandwidth that frontier models require.

SK Hynix holds 58 percent of the global HBM market, according to Counterpoint Research data published on June 25. Samsung Electronics and Micron each hold 21 percent. Among SK Hynix's biggest customers are Nvidia and Google, both of which rely on the company's memory chips for their AI infrastructure, Bloomberg reported.

Counterpoint Research Director MS Hwang told CNBC that SK Hynix has the best product, the lowest manufacturing cost, and the highest operating margin in the HBM market. The company reported a 72 percent operating margin in Q1 2026, higher than Nvidia's 65 percent in the same period, with revenue of 52.58 trillion won, a 198 percent year-over-year increase.

The Market Reaction

SK Hynix shares surged more than 12 percent on June 25, buoyed by the listing announcement and stronger-than-expected quarterly results from US rival Micron, which reinforced expectations that AI memory demand remains supply-constrained, CNBC reported.

The company's stock has risen more than 300 percent year-to-date. During intraday trading on June 22, SK Hynix briefly overtook Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable listed company for the first time since November 2000. Its market capitalization now stands at roughly $1.2 trillion.

HSBC analysts responded to the filing by applying a 20 percent premium to the company's valuation, raising their price target from 2.9 million won to 4 million won per share. They said the US listing would help SK Hynix narrow a persistent valuation gap with Micron, which has traded at an average 35 percent premium over the past 13 years due to better US investor access, CNBC reported.

The Broader Context

The listing arrives days before South Korea announced an 800 trillion won national semiconductor investment plan, with SK Hynix and Samsung each building two new fabrication plants. The convergence of the Nasdaq listing and the national investment plan signals that South Korea is consolidating its position as the critical supplier of AI memory at exactly the moment when global demand is accelerating fastest.

Analysts remain bullish on the outlook for AI memory chips, arguing that supply constraints in HBM are likely to persist for years as hyperscalers continue ramping AI infrastructure spending. Mirae Asset Securities expects passive fund inflows of 7 trillion won following the listing.

What to Watch

The ADR listing begins trading on July 10 under the ticker SKHY. Whether US institutional investors treat the offering as a pure infrastructure play on AI demand or apply the same valuation framework they use for Nvidia and other US chip companies will determine the long-term pricing trajectory and set a benchmark for how international semiconductor companies access the US AI capital market.