SK Hynix ADR sale sets U.S. record for foreign listings

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SK Hynix raises $26.5 billion

Highlights

SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion in its U.S. ADR sale.
The offering became the biggest U.S. debut by a foreign company.
Demand was more than seven times the available shares.
ADRs begin trading under SKHYV before moving to SKHY.

The company sold 177.9 million ADRs at $149 each, with every ADR equal to one-tenth of a common share traded in Seoul. The deal surpasses Alibaba’s $25 billion U.S. debut and ranks as the third-largest listing in history, according to Bloomberg.

AI demand drives record offering

SK Hynix is the world’s leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, a crucial component used in AI accelerators and data centers. That position has made the company one of the clearest public-market bets on the AI buildout, especially because it has become a key supplier to Nvidia.

The offering drew heavy institutional demand. Investors, including Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management, and Situational Awareness Partners, had indicated interest in buying as much as $7 billion of ADRs. The sale ended more than seven times oversubscribed, with demand approaching $200 billion.

Nearly half of the ADRs went to the 10 largest accounts, while the top 25 accounts received about two-thirds of the sale. The pricing also signaled confidence: SK Hynix priced the ADRs at about a 3% premium to Thursday’s closing price for its ordinary shares in Korea.

U.S. listing narrows valuation gap

The ADRs are expected to begin when-issued trading Friday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under SKHYV. Regular-way trading is scheduled to begin July 13 under SKHY.

The U.S. listing gives SK Hynix access to deeper pools of global capital and may help narrow its valuation gap with Micron Technology. A U.S. presence could also make the stock easier for international investors to buy, much as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s U.S. listing helped draw foreign flows.

The offering was led by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, with nine other firms participating.

AI memory becomes a capital magnet

The listing matters because it shows how strongly investors still believe in the AI hardware cycle, even after volatile trading in chip stocks. SK Hynix controls 57% of the global HBM market by revenue, according to Counterpoint Research, giving it unusual pricing power in one of the most important parts of the AI supply chain.

The funds may also support larger spending plans. SK Hynix and Samsung are expected to ramp up investment in South Korea under a government-backed technology initiative worth $880 billion.

We have previously highlighted that SK Hynix passes Samsung as HBM demand surges.

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