Prime Highlights
- SK Hynix plans to raise up to $29.4 billion through a Nasdaq ADR listing, potentially setting a new record.
- Proceeds will fund new chip facilities and advanced manufacturing equipment in South Korea.
Key Facts
- The offering is backed by 17.79 million new shares, with major global banks leading the deal.
- SK Hynix is a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips and South Korea’s most valuable listed company.
Background
South Korea’s SK Hynix has announced plans to raise up to 45.45 trillion won, equivalent to roughly $29.4 billion, through a listing of American Depositary Receipts on the Nasdaq market, in what could become the largest ADR offering ever recorded.
The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker disclosed the plan in a regulatory filing, saying the final amount may shift after bookbuilding concludes. The company intends to issue 17.79 million new shares to back the ADR listing, with 10 ADRs set to equal one common share.
SK Hynix said it will direct the proceeds toward building a chip factory in Yongin, developing an advanced packaging facility in Cheongju, and purchasing chipmaking equipment including Extreme Ultraviolet Scanners.
If the deal prices at the top of its indicated range, it would surpass the $21.8 billion Alibaba raised during its 2014 New York debut, setting a new benchmark for ADR offerings globally.
BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Securities are managing the offering.
SK Hynix has built a dominant position in high-bandwidth memory chips, supplying AI hardware makers including Nvidia and Alphabet’s Google. That role has made it one of the clearest beneficiaries of the global AI spending surge and helped it become South Korea’s most valuable publicly listed company.
The Nasdaq listing gives SK Hynix access to a broader international investor base at a time when demand for AI-related chips shows no sign of slowing.
The company said expanding production capacity remains central to its strategy as customers push for greater volumes of memory chips to power AI systems.