SK Hynix Raises $28 Billion on Nasdaq as Offering Oversubscribed Sevenfold

South Korean memory maker SK Hynix closed subscriptions for its share offering on the New York Stock Exchange's Nasdaq earlier than planned, as investor demand exceeded the available pool more than sevenfold. The offering, worth about $28.2 billion, is the second-largest share issuance in U.S. stock market history, trailing only SpaceX's debut earlier this year.

SK Hynix, one of the world's three largest memory makers alongside Samsung and Micron, has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom thanks to HBM (high-bandwidth memory), a key component in AI accelerators made by Nvidia and its rivals. It is the shortage of these chips and rising orders from data center operators that lie behind the decision to raise capital directly on the U.S. market.

Where the money is going

Unlike many stock offerings, where part of the proceeds go toward general corporate purposes, the entire sum raised by SK Hynix is earmarked for specific production investments. The company plans to fund construction of its first fab (Y1) in the Yongin semiconductor cluster, expansion of the advanced P&T7 packaging plant in Cheongju dedicated to HBM memory, and the purchase of EUV lithography machines needed to produce the most advanced chips.

The company justified its decision to list on Nasdaq by citing a desire to diversify its investor base and reach American institutional funds that understand the valuation of AI-related tech companies better than investors focused solely on the Korean market.

A jittery market backdrop

The offering arrives on the market at a moment of considerable nervousness around valuations of AI infrastructure companies. In early July, shares of SK Hynix and Samsung fell sharply following reports that Meta was considering selling off surplus AI computing capacity, which stoked fears of overinvestment in data centers. The strong, multiple-times-oversubscribed demand for SK Hynix shares just days later suggests institutional investors still believe in long-term demand for AI memory, despite short-term price volatility.

In June 2026, SK Hynix already overtook Samsung in market capitalization measured by common shares, becoming the largest company on South Korea's Kospi index. Strong demand for the Nasdaq ADR offering confirms that the market views the company as one of the key beneficiaries of AI infrastructure spending, alongside the accelerator makers themselves.

Implications for the memory market

For European and Polish companies buying servers or cloud services built on AI accelerators, the expansion of SK Hynix's production capacity has practical significance: limited supply of HBM memory has been driving up AI card prices and delivery times for several quarters. The investments funded by this offering are meant to increase the availability of these components in coming years, though the effects of the new factories will only become visible once construction is complete.

The final share price and the timing of the Nasdaq debut have not yet been officially confirmed by the company, though the earlier-than-planned closing of the order book suggests pricing close to the top of the indicated range.

Sources: Bloomberg (bloomberg.com), Reuters via MarketScreener (marketscreener.com), TechTimes (techtimes.com)