South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix is setting its sights on a massive American Depositary Receipts (ADR) listing in a bid to expand its investor base and ramp up chip production capabilities.
The Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) supplier unveiled plans to raise as much as 45.45 trillion won ($29.43 billion) through an ADR listing. The final sum, however, may vary following bookbuilding, as disclosed in a company regulatory filing on Wednesday.
The firm intends to issue 17.79 million new shares to facilitate the ADR listing on the Nasdaq market, slated for July 10. The funds raised will be channeled towards building a chip factory in Yongin, an advanced packaging fab in Cheongju, and acquiring chipmaking equipment like an Extreme Ultraviolet Scanner.
SK Hynix also stated that 10 ADRs will correspond to one common share. The offering is being overseen by BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Securities.
If priced at the top end of its range, the offering would surpass Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.‘s (NYSE:BABA) $21.8 billion 2014 New York debut, becoming the largest ADR listing in history.
AI Memory Boom Fuels SK Hynix Rise
The announcement comes on the heels of SK Hynix surpassing Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) to become South Korea’s most valuable company, a significant shift in the nation’s corporate hierarchy. On Monday, the company’s shares had surged 5.7%, raising its market capitalization to approximately 2,082.5 trillion won ($1.35 trillion).
SK Hynix’s rise above Samsung reflects a major shift in the semiconductor industry driven by the AI boom. As demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used with Nvidia’s AI processors surges, SK Hynix has emerged as a key beneficiary, highlighting how investors are increasingly valuing memory suppliers alongside GPU makers in the AI ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy KOSPI index in South Korea plunged roughly 10% on Tuesday, triggering circuit breakers and raising concerns about the market’s hottest trades cooling off. However, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives dismissed the concerns. Ives called SK Hynix, Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), and Samsung the “golden jewels” of the AI revolution, citing strong demand and limited supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. He said the scarcity of HBM has turned memory makers into key beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom, and argued that recent market selloffs overlook the industry’s strong long-term growth prospects.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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