On Thursday, SK Hynix finalized its initial public offering (IPO) price for its Nasdaq listing at 149 USD per share. The total offering size is approximately 26.5 billion USD, set to become the largest IPO by a foreign company in U.S. history.
The IPO garnered significant interest, with institutional investor demand exceeding seven times the available shares, solidifying SK Hynix’s position as a leading global memory semiconductor supplier.
With a share price of 149 USD and a total fundraising of 40 trillion KRW (about 26.6 billion USD), investors have shown strong faith in the company’s market competitiveness and long-term growth potential.
Industry sources reported on Friday that SK Hynix set its American Depositary Receipt (ADR) offering price at 149 USD per share. The offering comprises 177.9 million ADRs, with each ADR representing one-tenth of a common share, equivalent to 17.79 million common shares.
The offering price is roughly 3% higher than SK Hynix’s common share closing price on the Korean stock market that day, indicating high valuation from global investors. The IPO’s success was evident in the institutional demand, which surpassed the available shares by more than seven times.
Despite concerns about a potential memory bubble, SK Hynix has maintained investor confidence in its long-term growth prospects, largely due to its strong position in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
Recent volatility in memory semiconductor stocks, fueled by worries of excessive AI investment enthusiasm, hasn’t dampened the success of SK Hynix’s IPO. This suggests that the market still sees potential in the AI investment cycle.
Notably, SK Hynix’s offering is poised to surpass Alibaba’s 25 billion USD IPO, making it the largest by a foreign company on a U.S. exchange. Including U.S. companies, it ranks second only to SpaceX’s recent 85.7 billion USD listing.
SK Hynix plans to use the IPO proceeds to expand its production capacity, addressing the growing demand for AI memory. The company is currently developing semiconductor clusters in Yongin and Cheongju, South Korea.
In Yongin, SK Hynix is constructing a 4.16 million square meter semiconductor cluster. The first phase of fab construction alone is expected to cost around 31 trillion KRW (about 20.6billion USD). An additional 19 trillion KRW (about 12.6 billion USD) will go towards building the Cheongju P&T7 advanced packaging fab and related equipment.
The company is also preparing to establish semiconductor facilities in the Honam region, part of the government’s three major infrastructure projects.
Through these aggressive investments, SK Hynix aims to cement its leadership in the global memory semiconductor market.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will attend the Nasdaq listing ceremony for SK Hynix’s ADRs on Friday morning in New York. Key executives, including Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kwak No-jung, are expected to join the event.
Following the ceremony, Chairman Chey will participate in a live-streamed interview with Daniel Newman, a prominent technology industry analyst and founder of Futurum Group.