SK Hynix plans up to $29.4 billion U.S. listing amid AI boom

SK Hynix said on June 24 it plans to raise up to 45.45 trillion won, or about $29.4 billion, through a U.S. listing of American depositary receipts, a move that would rank among the biggest share sales ever. The company plans to issue 17.79 million new shares, with trading expected to begin July 10 and each common share represented by ten ADRs.

The listing is a direct bid for U.S. capital at a moment when money is still concentrating around the AI supply chain. SK Hynix has become one of the most important memory suppliers to Nvidia, and its planned Nasdaq debut shows how firms once followed mainly by semiconductor specialists are now being priced as core AI infrastructure plays. If completed at the top end, the deal would be the second-biggest share sale after SpaceX’s $85.7 billion initial public offering earlier this month, and it would surpass landmark offerings by Saudi Aramco and Alibaba.

SK Hynix said its board approved the issuance on June 24, and the proceeds are slated for a new chip factory in Yongin, an advanced packaging fab in Cheongju and equipment purchases including an extreme ultraviolet scanner. The company had already signaled that its U.S. listing plan was drawing “tremendously positive” feedback from investors earlier in June, a sign that global funds are still willing to back the semiconductor names most closely tied to AI buildout.

The push comes after a record 2025 for the chipmaker, when it reported revenue of 97.1467 trillion won, operating profit of 47.2063 trillion won and net profit of 42.9479 trillion won. On June 18, SK Hynix said it had shipped samples of its next-generation HBM4E memory to major customers, keeping the company in the middle of a product cycle aimed at protecting its lead in high-bandwidth memory. That momentum briefly carried it past Samsung Electronics on June 22, making SK Hynix South Korea’s most valuable company for a short period.

South Korea’s government said on June 24 that it is discussing next-phase semiconductor investment plans with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, adding policy support to a capital-raising wave that has been amplified by the AI boom. For SK Hynix, the U.S. listing is more than a financing event: it is a test of whether investor enthusiasm for AI-linked semiconductors can keep pace with rising capital needs, volatile chip markets and the scale of new manufacturing investment now required.