South Korean chip giant SK Hynix raises $26.5bn in US share sale

SK Hynix raised $26.5bn (£19.8bn) in its New York stock offering, the largest ever listing by an overseas company in the United States. The firm sold 177.9million American depositary shares at $149 each, with trading set to begin on Friday on the Nasdaq. In May, the South Korean semiconductor giant’s market capitalisation topped $1tn, driven by surging demand for AI chips. Its share price has more than tripled on the Korea Exchange this year, contributing, alongside Samsung Electronics, to a rise of over 70percent in the benchmark Kospi index over the same period. The offering ranks as the world’s second‑largest stock sale, trailing only SpaceX’s $85.7bn raise when it went public in June. Each American depositary share represents one‑tenth of a Seoul‑traded ordinary, SK Hynix said. SK Hynix is among the world’s leading producers of high‑end memory chips used in AI infrastructure such as data centers. Demand for the offering reportedly exceeded the available supply by more than seven times, underscoring strong investor appetite for a key player in the AI supply chain. The transaction provides U.S. investors a direct avenue to acquire SK Hynix shares without needing to trade on foreign exchanges, and gives the company easier access to the deep capital pools of the world’s largest economy. SK Hynix has previously stated it will invest to bolster South Korea’s chip‑making and AI capabilities in the coming years. In June, the South Korean government announced plans for more than $880bn of joint investments with SK Hynix and Samsung. Both SK Hynix and Samsung now boast market valuations above $1tn, placing them alongside technology titans Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet.