US stock futures, including the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, saw little change on Friday, following significant gains in the previous session driven by a rally in semiconductor stocks. The S&P 500 increased by 0.81% and the Nasdaq Composite by 1.3% on Thursday, with both benchmarks poised for weekly gains. The Dow Jones also added 0.27%. This stability comes amidst fluctuating sentiment around AI-related stocks due to concerns over high valuations, although optimism was bolstered by the robust demand for SK Hynix's US share offering.
South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix successfully raised $26.5 billion in its New York share offering, marking the largest-ever listing by a foreign firm in the US, surpassing Alibaba's 2014 listing. The company sold 177.9 million American Depositary Shares (ADRs) at $149 each, with demand reportedly over seven times the available shares, showcasing strong investor appetite for a key company in the AI supply chain. The ADRs are scheduled to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker "SKHYV," with regular trading under "SKHY" expected to commence on Monday.
The proceeds from the offering will be used to expand SK Hynix's production capacity, specifically funding new fabrication plants at the Yongin semiconductor cluster, the P&T7 advanced packaging plant in Cheongju, and the purchase of manufacturing equipment. This expansion is crucial for meeting the rising demand for advanced memory chips, particularly high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are essential components in AI accelerators like those from Nvidia. The Nasdaq listing is also expected to broaden SK Hynix's investor base and potentially narrow its valuation gap with US rival Micron Technology.
