SK Hynix Inc., a South Korean memory chipmaker, is entering the U.S. stock market with a planned listing to raise $29.4 billion (45.45 trillion won). This significant move is aimed at increasing its valuation and gaining access to a broader pool of investors, especially those focused on artificial intelligence. The listing could be among the top five share sales of all time globally and is expected to start trading on July 10, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.
This U.S. listing follows SK Hynix's emergence as a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a crucial component for AI computing. The company's shares in Seoul have already surged more than 300% this year, pushing its market value past $1 trillion. Analysts view the U.S. listing as a strategic step to further boost its valuation, enable capacity expansion, and attract greater foreign investment, particularly when compared to its competitors like Micron and Samsung Electronics. The proceeds from the listing are intended to fund the building of additional capacity to meet the insatiable demand for AI-related memory chips.
The demand for memory chips has fueled remarkable growth for companies in the AI supply chain. SK Hynix reported record operating profit for the first quarter, reaching 37.61 trillion won ($31.8 billion), exceeding analyst estimates. Sales nearly tripled to 52.58 trillion won. The offering is being led by major financial institutions including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group, and JPMorgan Chase. By listing in the U.S., SK Hynix seeks to capitalize on the AI boom and potentially narrow its valuation gap with rivals while ensuring it can meet the critical bottleneck of data-center expansion.
