South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix began trading on the Nasdaq after launching its new US listing on Friday, cashing in on the surging demand driven by the global buildout of artificial intelligence.
The company priced its American depositary receipts at $149 apiece on Thursday, only to see them open at $170 on the Nasdaq on Friday morning.
The sale of 177.9 million ADRs raised proceeds of $26.5 billion. An ADR is a type of certificate that lets US investors buy a foreign stock without trading directly on an overseas exchange. Each ADR represents a tenth of a common share.
The offering was the largest US share sale by a foreign issuer and the second-largest public offering — behind SpaceX's $85.7 billion IPO in June — and surpassed both Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion listing in 2019 and Alibaba's $25 billion offering in 2014.
SK Hynix said that the proceeds would go toward building new chip factories in South Korea and purchasing manufacturing equipment, including extreme ultraviolet lithography scanners from Dutch supplier ASML.
