SK Hynix Raises $26.5 Billion in Top US Debut by a Foreign Firm

SK Hynix Inc. raised $26.5 billion in its American depositary share offering, as the South Korean memory chipmaker powered through volatility to deliver the largest ever US first-time share sale by a foreign company.

The company sold 177.9 million ADRs for $149 each, according to a statement confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Each ADR is equivalent to a 10th of a Seoul-traded common share.

At $26.5 billion, the offering tops Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s US debut to become the third biggest listing in history, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

SK Hynix’s US offering gives the world’s top supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) a powerful fundraising channel, tapping investors looking for more ways to play the red-hot artificial intelligence infrastructure trade. It attracted indications of interest from Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management and Situational Awareness Partners for as much as $7 billion of ADRs, its filing showed.

SK Hynix priced the listing at about a 3% premium to Thursday’s closing price for the ordinary shares in Korea, according to Bloomberg calculations. The ADRs are expected to trade above the equivalent share price in Seoul, due to restrictions on exchanging common stock for the US instruments.

The decision not to entice buyers by offering ADRs at a discount to the local share price indicates the company is confident that its US stock will meet a positive reception — even after days of wild swings in its share price in its home market — and reflects a desire not to leave too much money on the table.

Read More: Extreme SK Hynix Stock Swings Add Wild Card to $28 Billion Deal

The debut is also expected to shrink SK Hynix’s discount to US rival Micron Technology Inc.’s stock. Taiwanese chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s US listing has enabled it to tap into foreign investor flows and trade at a premium to its shares in Taipei.

Deep Pools of Capital

SK Hynix’s ADR offering joins a rush of tech giants tapping the market’s deep pools of capital to fund the buildout of AI infrastructure. SpaceX held the largest initial public offering in history earlier in June, while Alphabet Inc. is set to raise $85 billion to fund its AI plans.

Investors are betting that robust AI-related demand represents a secular growth story for memory stocks, which have traditionally been viewed as more cyclical in nature, with demand and growth rising and falling alongside PC and smartphone cycles.

The ADR sale is expected to help fund growing spending plans amid soaring demand for equipment used in AI computing. The company and Samsung Electronics Co. are poised to ramp up investment in South Korea as part of a government-led initiative worth $880 billion.

Read More: Samsung, SK to Spend $880 Billion to Drive Korea’s AI Lead

The record-setting offering caps a dramatic success story lifting the firm into the upper ranks of AI infrastructure companies. An early shift to embrace HBM — and a relatively sluggish response by Samsung — made it the go-to provider for Nvidia Corp., bringing a huge windfall and vaulting the underdog past its rival by some measures. It controlled 57% of the global HBM market share by revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

SK Hynix’s ADR sale ended more than seven times oversubscribed, according to terms of the deal confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Nearly half of the ADRs were sold to the accounts placing the 10 largest orders, with interest approaching $200 billion in demand, the terms show.

The IPO for the South Korean company saw the top 25 accounts coming away with about two thirds of the ADRs, according to the terms. Management was heavily involved in the allocation process. A spokesperson for SK Hynix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ADRs are set to begin when-issued trading Friday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol SKHYV, which will change to SKHY when they begin regular-way trading July 13.

The offering was led by Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., with nine other firms participating.

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