SK Hynix sets record Nasdaq debut with $26.5 billion ADR offering

SK Hynix priced its American depositary receipts at $149 each and raised about $26.5 billion in a Nasdaq debut that was set to begin trading on Friday, July 10, 2026. The sale of 177.9 million ADRs made it the largest-ever first-time U.S. share sale by a foreign company, giving American investors direct access to the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker.

Each ADR represented one-tenth of a Seoul-listed common share, putting the transaction at 17.79 million common shares equivalent. The company had originally launched the deal at about 43 trillion won, or roughly $28 billion, before trimming the size after its stock fell in recent weeks. Even after the cut, demand remained intense, with orders said to have covered the books multiple times and overall interest more than seven times the shares on offer.

The investor list showed how aggressively global money is chasing the AI supply chain. Baillie Gifford Overseas, funds managed by Coatue Management and Situational Awareness Partners separately indicated interest in buying up to a combined $7 billion of the ADRs. That appetite helped turn a routine funding exercise into a signal about where investors see durable power in artificial intelligence: not just in processors and software, but in the memory chips that feed advanced systems with data fast enough to keep up.

SK Hynix has cast the listing as part of its push to capitalize on the global AI boom and the market for high-bandwidth memory, a critical component in advanced AI processors. That product category has become one of the most strategic in semiconductors, tightening the link between capital markets and chip manufacturing as companies race to secure supply for AI servers and accelerators.

Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase led the deal, which also carried an underwriting fee structure that could bring the banks more than $130 million if the spread was set at 0.5%. The scale of the sale, and the speed at which it attracted capital, places SK Hynix alongside the few equity offerings that have been large enough to reshape expectations for semiconductor financing in the United States.