Bloomberg
SK Hynix Inc is planning to raise 45.45 trillion won (US$29.38 billion) in a landmark US listing, as companies along the artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain rush to increase capacity to meet memory demand.Companies have been raising record amounts to fund the buildout of AI infrastructure in recent months. SpaceX held the largest initial public offering in history earlier this month, while Alphabet Inc plans to raise US$85 billion to fund its AI plans.SK Hynix expects trading on the NASDAQ exchange to start on July 10, a regulatory filing yesterday showed.
People walk past the SK Hynix booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing on Monday.
The South Korean company and other leading makers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) — most notably Samsung Electronics Co and Micron Technology Inc — sit at the chokepoint of the global AI buildout, with their products forming a critical bottleneck for data center expansion. SK Hynix controlled 57 percent of the global HBM market by revenue in the fourth quarter of last year, Counterpoint Research data showed.
However, the firm trades at a discount to Micron and Samsung Electronics.The company intends to use the proceeds to build additional capacity, its regulatory filing showed.The insatiable demand for memory chips has fueled breakneck rallies in these stocks, with SK Hynix shares listed in Seoul climbing more than 300 percent this year, exceeding US$1 trillion in market value. A US listing would give the company access to a fresh pool of investors and could help SK Hynix narrow a gap in its valuation compared with its competitors.Asian issuers that have already been listed in the US include chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). TSMC’s US listing enabled it to tap into foreign investor flows, cementing its status as a US investor favorite — particularly as part of the AI-driven rally.SK Hynix’s operating profit for the first quarter jumped to 37.61 trillion won, a record high that compares with the average estimate by analysts for 35.7 trillion won. Sales nearly tripled to 52.58 trillion won.The offering is being led by Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JP Morgan Chase & Co.
