SK Hynix NASDAQ listing could be second-largest equity offering ever, trailing only SpaceX

South Korea’s SK Hynix is about to pull off something that would make most CFOs weep with joy. The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker is listing on the Nasdaq through an American depositary receipts offering worth approximately $28 billion, which would make it the second-largest equity offering in history.

The only deal that tops it? SpaceX’s roughly $85.7 billion IPO. Not bad company to keep.

The deal breakdown

SK Hynix plans to issue 17.79 million new common shares through an ADR structure, where 10 ADRs represent one common share. The reference pricing sits around 242,500 won per ADR, based on the Seoul close.

Trading is expected to kick off on the Nasdaq Global Select Market around July 10, with pricing anticipated around July 9. The offering was initially targeting roughly $29 billion before being revised down to the $28 billion figure.

The offering was multiple times oversubscribed. The proceeds are earmarked for equipment purchases and capacity expansion to address ongoing memory shortages.

Why AI makes this a blockbuster

SK Hynix isn’t just any chipmaker looking for a US listing. The company is the dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, which has become the oxygen supply for artificial intelligence infrastructure. SK Hynix has emerged as a frontrunner in producing HBM3/HBM3E chips crucial for AI applications such as training and inference acceleration.

The company’s stock price has soared more than threefold in 2026, propelling its market capitalization above $1 trillion.

The move also addresses what’s known as the “Korea discount,” a persistent gap between what South Korean companies are fundamentally worth and what global investors are willing to pay for shares listed exclusively in Seoul. A Nasdaq listing puts SK Hynix directly in front of the world’s deepest pool of institutional capital.

The competitive landscape shifts

Micron Technology, SK Hynix’s primary US-listed rival in the memory business, now faces a competitor with enhanced access to American capital markets and heightened visibility among US institutional investors. The two companies have long competed for HBM contracts with major AI chipmakers, and SK Hynix’s capital infusion gives it significant firepower to expand production capacity at a critical moment.

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker and SK Hynix’s Korean rival, has been playing catch-up in the HBM space.

What this means for investors

The valuation investors assign to SK Hynix’s ADRs relative to its Seoul-listed shares will be worth watching closely. Any meaningful premium would validate the Korea discount thesis and could encourage other major Korean companies to pursue similar dual listings.

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