South Korea’s biggest chipmaker SK Hynix — and the world’s dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI accelerators — announced on June 24 that it plans to list on Nasdaq and raise up to 45.45 trillion won, roughly $29.4 billion, through American depositary receipts.
Potential record
If the deal closes at the top of its indicated range, it would surpass Alibaba’s $21.8 billion New York debut in 2014 as the largest ADR offering ever recorded. The offering is being led by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase.
Trading on Nasdaq is expected to begin July 10, 2026, under the ticker SKHY, with subscription and payment scheduled for July 14. Newly issued Korean shares will separately list on the Korea Exchange on July 29.
Why now
SK Hynix cited what it described as “insatiable demand” for HBM — the stacked memory chips that sit alongside Nvidia GPUs and other AI accelerators — as the central driver. The company controls roughly 57% of the global HBM market by revenue. Its Seoul-listed shares have risen more than 300% in 2026 alone, yet the company says supply consistently falls short of demand.
According to the filing, proceeds will go toward building new production facilities and acquiring next-generation EUV lithography scanners needed to manufacture more advanced chips, with a delivery target of December 2027.
The move follows a path blazed by TSMC, whose US-listed depositary shares broadened its investor base and improved its valuation. SK Hynix, despite its market dominance in HBM, trades at a discount to Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology — and the Nasdaq listing is designed in part to close that gap by making the stock accessible to institutional investors who are heavily allocated to AI infrastructure but have limited access to Korean equities.