SK hynix, the South Korean memory chipmaker that supplies the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) built into most of the world’s AI accelerators, filed on June 24 to list on the Nasdaq exchange, seeking up to $29.4 billion in what would be the second-largest American IPO on record.
What HBM is and why it matters
HBM—high-bandwidth memory—is a type of stacked memory chip that sits directly alongside AI processors and transfers data at speeds that conventional memory cannot match. Without HBM, Nvidia’s data center GPUs cannot function, and every major AI data center expansion is ultimately constrained by how many HBM chips can be produced.
SK hynix produces more than half of the world’s HBM supply, making it the single most critical link in the AI hardware supply chain. Its first-quarter 2026 revenue surged 198 percent year over year to $38 billion, with a net profit margin of 77 percent over the same period—figures that reflect the intensity of AI-driven demand.
Where the money goes
All proceeds from the Nasdaq listing are earmarked for production expansion. The company plans to open four fabrication plants in the Yongin semiconductor cluster near Seoul, part of a broader industrial park expected to attract over $200 billion in investment. The new fabs will add significant HBM output capacity, addressing one of the principal supply constraints on global AI infrastructure.
The offering will sell up to 17.79 million American Depositary Receipts (ADRs)—the mechanism that allows foreign companies to list shares on U.S. exchanges. The target listing date is July 10, which would place the offering just behind SpaceX’s $85.7 billion IPO as the second-largest in U.S. history.
Why it matters for Georgia
As the AI hardware supply chain expands, cloud providers that depend on these chips may bring more capacity online at lower cost. Georgia’s rapidly growing IT sector—which saw the number of IT companies roughly double between 2022 and 2024—increasingly relies on cloud-based AI services for software development and business automation. A larger global HBM supply, funded by offerings like this one, forms the foundation for broader and more affordable access to AI infrastructure worldwide.