SK Hynix Raises $26.5 Billion in the Largest US Listing Ever by a Foreign Company

The memory maker that supplies more than half the world's high-bandwidth memory priced 177.9 million ADRs at $149 apiece, drawing orders more than seven times the deal — and eclipsing Alibaba's 2014 record.

Jul 10, 2026Source: Yahoo Finance

SK Hynix Raises $26.5 Billion in the Largest US Listing Ever by a Foreign Company

Key Points

1.SK Hynix priced 177.9 million American depositary receipts at $149 each on July 9, raising about $26.5 billion — surpassing Alibaba's 2014 New York debut, commonly cited near $25 billion, as the largest first-time US listing by a foreign company.
2.The book was more than seven times oversubscribed, with Baillie Gifford Overseas, Coatue Management and a fund identified as Situational Awareness Partners indicating interest of up to $7 billion combined; Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan ran the deal.
3.SK Hynix holds 56.4% of the global high-bandwidth memory market and is a key Nvidia supplier; proceeds go to fab expansion. ADRs began when-issued trading Friday, July 10 under SKHYV, with regular-way Nasdaq trading under SKHY set for Monday, as Seoul-listed shares opened about 2.8% higher.

The AI boom has produced its largest single act of capital raising by a foreign company on a US exchange. SK Hynix priced 177.9 million American depositary receipts at $149 each on July 9, raising roughly $26.5 billion — past the $25 billion commonly cited for Alibaba's 2014 New York debut. The ADRs began when-issued trading on Nasdaq Friday, July 10 under the symbol SKHYV, ahead of regular-way trading under the ticker SKHY on Monday.

The demand

The book was more than seven times oversubscribed, according to Reuters, drawing long-only funds, technology specialists and sovereign wealth funds. Baillie Gifford Overseas, Coatue Management and a fund identified as Situational Awareness Partners together indicated interest of up to $7 billion. The deal grew during the roadshow, from talk of roughly $24.5 billion to a final price representing about a 2.7% premium to the three-day average of the Seoul-listed shares. Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan underwrote it.

Why anyone paid

This is not a startup story. SK Hynix already trades in Seoul; this is a secondary listing that converts its position in high-bandwidth memory into US capital. The company holds 56.4% of the global HBM market — the stacked memory that sits beside Nvidia's accelerators and, increasingly, determines how fast they can be fed. "SK Hynix leads on share and Nvidia proximity," said Daniel Newman, chief executive of Futurum Group. "Micron competes on power efficiency, U.S. positioning, and momentum." Proceeds are earmarked for fab capacity.

The caution

Memory is the most violently cyclical business in semiconductors, and the analysts watching this one remember the last trough. "They were literally selling stuff below costs, and then they rapidly pulled back on capex," said Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. SK Hynix shares are up several hundred percent over the past year and briefly overtook Samsung Electronics in market value in June — a lead Samsung reclaimed within a day — before falling roughly 25% in the two weeks ahead of the listing. Seoul-listed shares opened Friday about 2.8% higher, trailing a broader Korean market up 4.5%.

What it buys

Capacity, and a currency. A Nasdaq line gives SK Hynix US-denominated equity for the fab expansion the AI cycle demands — and a valuation set by the same investors funding its customers. The structure matters too: because the company is already listed on the Korea Exchange, this is a secondary ADR offering rather than a conventional IPO, with each receipt representing a tenth of a common share. Debut-day trading ran under a when-issued symbol, SKHYV, before converting to regular-way SKHY. The proceeds now have to outrun the cycle that has humbled every memory maker before it.

Why It Matters

The largest foreign listing in US history is a memory company, not a model lab — a reminder that the binding constraint on AI is bandwidth to feed accelerators, and that SK Hynix controls more than half of it. The raise funds fabs whose output determines how many GPUs Nvidia can actually ship, which makes this deal a leading indicator for 2027 compute supply more than for SK Hynix's own share price.

Filed underAI Chips #HBM #Nasdaq #SK Hynix #semiconductors