SK hynix plans to raise about $28bn through a New York listing, aiming to capitalise on the current surge in demand for chips used in AI.
According to regulatory filings, the South Korean memory semiconductor producer will offer 17.79 million new shares in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq. Ten ADRs will represent one ordinary SK hynix share.
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The price range for the listing will be revealed on Monday. The final offer price will be confirmed on Thursday, with trading set to begin on Friday.
Proceeds from this listing are earmarked for funding construction of chip fabrication plants and purchasing advanced chip equipment, including an extreme ultraviolet scanner made by ASML in the Netherlands.
SK hynix stated that these investments will further enable it to support increasing global demand, particularly for memory components utilised in AI, high-performance computing, and data centre infrastructure.
The US listing comes as chipmakers globally seek capital to scale up in response to the ongoing shift towards AI-based technologies, Reuters reported.
According to a GlobalData TS Lombard report by Dario Perkins, global AI capital spending is estimated to be at about $800bn in 2026, with the US accounting for more than 80%. The report said US AI capex could reach 2% of GDP in 2026, while most other economies would spend a smaller share.
It cited Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, China and the Scandinavian economies as the next largest spenders, at AI capex-to-GDP ratios around four times lower than the US.
Recently, South Korea’s government announced a broad industrial policy initiative with a focus on the semiconductor and AI sectors. This includes a Won576tn ($576bn) chip investment programme targeting the country’s southwest.
SK hynix and Samsung Electronics have been named as anchor participants.
Currently, SK hynix is among the leading memory chip suppliers worldwide. According to the company’s filings and IDC research, it held second place in global DRAM market share, including HBM, at 29.1% by revenue in the first quarter of 2026.
The company was first worldwide in high bandwidth memory (HBM), with a 56.4% share. SK hynix was also ranked as the second largest supplier of NAND flash memory at 18.5% market share for the same period.
Its memory products are found in a range of systems, from graphics cards and personal computers, to mobile devices and servers. The Korean firm’s portfolio covers DRAM and NAND flash memory with various densities, speeds and power profiles.
The company has reported increased shipments of HBM, driven by customer demand in AI, GPUs and data centres. Recent years have seen particular growth in high-performance memory types optimised for AI and high-performance computing.
SK hynix’s financial disclosures show revenue of Won52,576bn ($34.5bn) and profit of Won40,346bn ($26.48bn) for the first quarter of 2026.
For 2025, revenue reached Won97,147bn ($63.76bn) with profit at Won42,948bn ($28.2bn).
The company has expanded globally through a series of strategic investments and acquisitions.
In 2020, SK hynix agreed to buy Intel’s NAND flash memory and storage business. Operations for this business are now managed under the Solidigm name, operated by a dedicated US subsidiary.
Last week, SK hynix announced plans to invest Won100tn ($65.3bn) in Cheongju, within the Chungcheong region, to build the M17 NAND fabrication facility and the P&T7 advanced packaging plant. This move is part of broader efforts to expand capacity in established semiconductor hubs in South Korea.
In July, the company entered a partnership with Nvidia to jointly develop and ensure supply of advanced memory targeting the latter’s AI and high-performance computing roadmaps. This includes support for platforms such as Vera Rubin AI supercomputers and RTX Spark-enabled PCs.
