SK Hynix, the South Korean memory-chip giant, aims to raise 45.453 trillion won, equivalent to $29.65 billion, by listing American depositary receipts on the Nasdaq, according to a regulatory filing submitted to the Korea Exchange on Wednesday. The company said it expects trading to begin July 10.
The deal would be one of the largest share sales in history. The Wall Street Journal reported the size is comparable to Saudi Aramco’s 2019 initial public offering and exceeds Alibaba’s 2014 U.S. ADR offering. The scale of the capital raise underscores the enormous cash demands of the artificial-intelligence infrastructure buildout, as companies invest heavily in data centers and specialized chips.
SK Hynix has been a key beneficiary of the AI boom. The company is a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products used in Nvidia’s AI accelerators. In April, SK Hynix posted a fivefold increase in quarterly net profit, driven by surging demand for advanced chips. Shares of the company have jumped approximately 300% year-to-date, lifting its market capitalization above $1 trillion — a milestone reached only by Samsung Electronics among South Korean firms before it.
The Nasdaq composite index, where the ADRs will trade, closed at 25,587.04 on the day of the filing, reflecting continued investor appetite for technology stocks.
Four global investment banks are leading the offering: BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan Securities, according to the filing. The proceeds are expected to fund expansion plans as SK Hynix races to increase production capacity for HBM and other advanced memory chips essential to AI systems.