SK Hynix Plans $29 Billion Nasdaq Listing by July 10: The Biggest ADR Offering in History

[Quarry]

SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker and the dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory to Nvidia, filed to raise approximately 45.45 trillion won, or around 29.4 billion dollars, through an American depositary receipt listing on the Nasdaq with trading expected to begin July 10. If it hits the top of the range this would surpass Alibaba's 21.8 billion dollar New York debut in 2014 as the largest ADR offering in history. The company's Seoul-traded shares have soared more than 850 percent over the past 12 months, pushing its market cap above one trillion dollars.

The timing is no coincidence. SK Hynix dropped the ADR filing the same day Micron reported record quarterly results, and the combined news sent SK Hynix shares surging over 12 percent in a single session. The company holds around 60 percent of the global HBM market and AI data centre demand has been so relentless that supply constraints are forecast to persist well beyond 2027. All the proceeds from the listing are earmarked for specific facilities including the first fab at the Yongin semiconductor cluster in South Korea and a new advanced packaging plant in Indiana.

For US investors this listing solves a long-standing access problem. SK Hynix has been one of the clearest plays on AI infrastructure demand but buying its shares meant navigating the Korea Exchange in won. ADRs remove that friction entirely. HSBC has already applied a 20 percent premium to their price target, arguing SK Hynix should trade closer to Micron's valuation once US investors can access it through standard brokerage accounts.

SK Hynix surges 12% after Micron earnings; blockbuster Nasdaq listingwww.cnbc.com