The offering is expected to raise around $28 billion, according to a regulatory filing published by SK Hynix on Monday. This would make it the largest American Depositary Receipt (ADR) offering in history and the second-largest stock market listing ever after SpaceX. The secondary listing would also surpass Saudi Aramco's $25,6 billion IPO in 2019.

According to the filing, 179,9 million SK Hynix ADRs will be listed on the Nasdaq. Each ADR will represent one-tenth of an ordinary share.

The indicative price range will be based on the company's common share price in Seoul and will be announced at a later stage. The final offering price is expected to be set on Thursday, 9 July 2026, ahead of the shares' trading debut on Friday, although the company noted that the timetable remains subject to change.

Funding Further Expansion

SK Hynix plans to use the expected $28 billion in proceeds to accelerate its growth strategy. Most of the capital will be invested in expanding the company's manufacturing capacity.

However, the transaction is about more than simply raising capital, Dave Mazza, Chief Executive of asset manager Roundhill, told Reuters.

«SK Hynix is one of the world's most important companies that many U.S. investors have not been able to access directly,» he said. «A Wall Street listing removes that barrier.­»

SK Hynix is the world's leading supplier of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), holding a 61 percent global market share. These high-performance, high-margin memory chips are used in AI data centres. Rapid investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure has created supply shortages of both HBM and conventional semiconductors, driving sharp price increases and enabling SK Hynix and its competitors to deliver one record quarter after another.

From Crisis to Global Leadership

Just weeks ago, SK Hynix surpassed Samsung to become South Korea's most valuable publicly traded company.

Less than a quarter of a century ago, however, the company was on the verge of being sold to U.S. rival Micron after an aggressive expansion strategy left it burdened with heavy debt.

Today, SK Hynix and Samsung are at the centre of a South Korean government initiative involving investments worth several hundred billion euros to strengthen the country's global leadership in semiconductor exports.

The current boom has also produced an unintended consequence: Samsung and SK Hynix now account for more than 40 percent of the total market capitalisation of South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index.