Catenaa, Sunday, July 05, 2026- SK Hynix will seek to raise $29 billion in this week’s US stock market listing in the biggest-ever first-time share sale by a foreign company.
For years, the South Korea-based semiconductor manufacturer has traded at a discount to its chief US-based rival, Micron Technology.
Tapping into the world’s deepest equity market and its frenzy for all things related to artificial intelligence could help change that at a time when the companies that make memory chips and other equipment used in AI data centers are driving the performance of the S&P 500 Index.
Betting on SK Hynix has been difficult, if not impossible, for most American investors.
Like Micron, the second-best performer in the S&P 500 this year with a scorching 242% gain, the company is benefiting from soaring demand for high-bandwidth memory chips.
But owning SK Hynix’s South Korea-listed shares outright means off-hours trading in the US. The other alternative is to buy unsponsored American depositary receipts (ADRs) over the counter.
Not only are the unsponsored ADRs performing worse than SK Hynix’s South Korea shares, but liquidity is also severely limited, making trading them a challenge.
SK Hynix’s Nasdaq listing, which is expected on July 10, should change that and improve the company’s lagging valuation.
The South Korean firm trades at 6.2 times estimated earnings over the next 12 months. Micron is currently at 7 times after the shares tumbled 14% last week, their worst performance since March, but it was over 11 times as recently as June 22.
Over the past 12 months, SK Hynix’s Korea-listed shares and Micron’s stock have gained about 700%, pushing both companies’ market capitalizations above $1 trillion.
The rallies are hardly unique among memory and storage companies. SanDisk is leading the S&P 500 in that time, soaring 3,676%, while Western Digital is up 719% and Seagate Technology Holdings has jumped 449%.
Overall, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index has gained 125% in the past 12 months and is coming off its best quarter ever.
But investors are increasingly nervous about how much longer the good times can last.
The tech giants driving the bulk of the memory demand, including Alphabet and Microsoft, are increasingly turning to debt and equity markets to fund spending that until recently was coming from their cash piles.
Those capital expenditures have sent memory chipmakers’ profits through the roof. But if the spigot gets turned off, the whole dynamic will change.
In the meantime, SK Hynix’s ADRs will undoubtedly appeal to many US investors seeking more ways to bet on the biggest beneficiaries of AI spending.
SK Hynix is projected to deliver $144 billion in net income in 2026 on sales of $231 billion, up 415% and 265%, respectively, from 2025.
Micron is expected to post an 876% surge in net income to about $83 billion in its current fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31, on a 247% leap in sales to $130 billion.
