South Korea’s SK Hynix is launching a roughly $28 billion U.S. share sale on the Nasdaq, marking one of the largest equity offerings in recent years and a direct bet on the global artificial intelligence boom. The company will issue 17.79 million new American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), with ten ADRs representing one underlying SK Hynix common share, using the proceeds to fund new chip factories and buy advanced equipment including extreme ultraviolet lithography systems from ASML.
SK Hynix has emerged as a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a critical component in AI systems used by customers such as Nvidia and Google. The stock has soared about 273% this year as investors rally behind AI-related hardware, while SK Hynix has outperformed rivals Samsung and Micron in the memory market. The U.S. listing is expected to elevate SK Hynix among the world’s most valuable tech firms and give it a deeper presence in the world’s largest capital market.
The $28 billion raise is part of a broader South Korean push to capture more of the AI economy; last week SK Hynix announced plans to invest 100 trillion won (about $64.4 billion) in new chip plants, including facilities for NAND flash memory. The deal could rank as the second-biggest share sale after SpaceX’s record $85.7 billion IPO last month, surpassing landmark offerings by Saudi Aramco and Alibaba in previous years. With the final price set later this week and trading targeted to begin on Friday, SK Hynix is positioning itself at the financial and technological center of the AI infrastructure race.
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(Source: Reuters | Channel News Asia)
