South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix is set to complete one of the largest share sales in history, listing American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq with an expected valuation of $28 billion — making it the second-biggest IPO of all time, behind only the $85.7 billion offering from US aerospace and AI company SpaceX last month. The offering of 177.9 million shares — representing about 2.5 per cent of the company's total stock — was more than seven times oversubscribed, reflecting enormous investor appetite for a company that sits at the very centre of the global artificial intelligence supply chain. Final pricing is expected after the South Korean stock market closes on Thursday, with allocations to follow later in the US trading day.
SK Hynix, founded in 1983 as Hyundai Electronics Industries and later taken over by the South Korean conglomerate SK Group in 2012, has transformed itself from a near-bankrupt memory chipmaker into the world's dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips — the specialised components that serve as the short-term memory of AI systems. HBM chips stack multiple memory layers on top of one another to transfer data faster and more efficiently, making them indispensable for the AI processors powering data centres worldwide. SK Hynix held a 61 per cent share of the global HBM market in 2025, according to research firm TrendForce, and Goldman Sachs estimates it still supplies around two-thirds of the latest-generation HBM4 chips used in Nvidia's newest AI platform. At a recent technology fair in Taiwan, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang — a close associate of SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won — walked directly to the SK Hynix booth and signed a chip with the inscription: "Please make more."
The company's ascent is the result of strategic bets made years before AI became a mainstream investment theme. Management began developing HBM chips as far back as 2009, continuing to invest in the technology even when there was almost no market for it. The group also forged a close manufacturing partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), giving it access to cutting-edge chip production technology, and acquired Intel's NAND flash memory division earlier this decade. Those long-term decisions have paid off spectacularly: SK Hynix shares have risen roughly 680 per cent over the past twelve months on the Korean Stock Exchange, though the stock has pulled back about 25 per cent over the past two weeks amid broader uncertainty about AI valuations. Analysts project that the company's operating profit could increase more than sevenfold year-on-year in the second quarter, with profit margins potentially exceeding 70 per cent.
Proceeds from the Nasdaq listing will fund a major expansion, including the construction of a new semiconductor factory near the South Korean city of Yongin — part of a broader $2.4 trillion national investment plan announced in late June by South Korean companies including Samsung and the SK Group — as well as new chip packaging facilities and advanced lithography equipment needed to manufacture next-generation semiconductors.
The listing arrives at a delicate moment for AI-related stocks. After months of extraordinary gains, semiconductor shares have lost momentum globally, with concerns mounting that major AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have yet to translate vast investment into significant profits, and that large cloud computing operators may begin scaling back data centre expansion. Market strategists note that the performance of SK Hynix's Nasdaq debut will be closely watched as a barometer for broader confidence in the AI investment cycle — a strong start could signal continued momentum, while a weak one might deepen fears that the AI boom is a bubble approaching its limits.