SK Hynix secures $26.5 billion in blockbuster US share sale

In a significant move, South Korean semiconductor giant maker SK Hynix has reportedly raised $26.5bn in its blockbuster US initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq, making it the largest-ever US listing by a foreign company

On Thursday, the company, which is a strategic supplier to artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia, confirmed that it had sold 177.9 million American shares for $149 each. Meanwhile, SK Hynix saw its commercial value top $1tn in its home country in May, propelled by soaring demand for AI chips.

SK Hynix is one of the world’s leading memory chip makers as the industry has been boosted by the hundreds of billions being spent on AI. Hence, shares in rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron have surged in recent months.

In this connection, Seoul National University finance Jaewon Choi said that the US listing of SK Hynix provides widespread availability to capital in the world’s biggest economy which has fewer barriers than South Korea.

The overwhelming demand for SK Hynix’s offering was seven times more than the number of shares available, underscoring the strong investor profile hunger for a pivotal company in the AI supply chain.

SK Hynix said: “Each American depositary share is equivalent to a tenth of Seoul-traded common shares.”

The country’s government is probably counting on SK Hynix’s US listing to raise funds that can support the firm’s domestic investments.

Furthermore, SK Hynix and Samsung have a combined market capitalization of more than $1 tn, integrating into an expanding tech ecosystem that includes giants such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet.