SK Hynix IPO to give US investors bigger bite of the memory pie as shortages persist
Daniel Howley· Technology Editor
Updated Thu, July 9, 2026 at 8:03 PM GMT+5:30
3 min read
- 000660.KS
+5.30%
SK Hynix (000660.KS) is poised to set the final price for its US public trading debut on the Nasdaq on Friday, as appetite for the South Korean chipmaker’s share sale runs high
The initial public offering (IPO) consists of 177.9 million American depositary shares (ADS), each representing one-tenth of a share of the company’s common stock, or 17.79 million shares, that will trade under the ticker symbol SKHY
Demand for the US sale is running at seven times the available shares, per reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, underscoring the huge interest in a share sale seen as potentially the second-biggest ever
All totaled, SK Hynix is hoping to raise $28 billion as it seeks to build up its manufacturing capacity to keep up with the incredible need for memory and storage chips driven by the global AI build-out. The chip giant is expected to set the final price of its US share offering on Thursday, reports said
The debut also gives US investors an easier way to get in on the South Korean memory stock bonanza
The company’s South Korea-listed stock, which trades on the Korea Exchange, has skyrocketed 174% over the past six months and 636% in the past year.
Though, as Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre pointed out, memory stocks fell into a bear market on Tuesday
Memory makers are flying high thanks to the seemingly insatiable demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and storage chips, which has created a global shortage impacting everything from data center builders to the consumer electronics industry
Data center servers require storage chips to save and access data needed to run AI models and processes. But AI chips, like Nvidia’s (NVDA) graphics processing units (GPUs), don’t need to access every bit of program or AI model all the time. Doing so would make them slow and inefficient
It would be like trying to remember everything that’s happened in your life when someone asks what you did over the weekend
That’s where HBM comes in. This specialized memory holds the most important data needed to run a piece of software, right next to the processor, enabling superfast performance
Three major companies make HBM and storage: Micron (MU), Samsung (005930.KS), and SK Hynix. And according to SK Hynix’s filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, it’s the latest producer of HBM, capturing 56.4% of the market. All three companies are Nvidia partners
But American investors have limited means to purchase shares of SK Hynix or Samsung
