SK Hynix priced its U.S. share sale on Thursday at $149 per American depositary receipt, according to the offering terms and the company’s registration filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The South Korean memory-chip maker offered 177.9 million ADRs, equivalent to 17.79 million common shares Bloomberg — each receipt equal to one-tenth of a common share — to raise about $26.5 billion. That would be the largest ever first-time share sale in the US by a foreign company, topping Alibaba Group Holding’s $25 billion debut. Yahoo Finance

The listing lands on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, where the receipts begin when-issued trading Friday under the symbol SKHYV, switching to SKHY when regular-way trading starts July 13. Yahoo Finance The price sits about 3.1% above the Thursday closing price of the common shares in Seoul, which ended at 2.186 million won, or roughly $1,445 each. Bloomberg

Demand ran far ahead of supply. The offering drew demand approaching $200 billion, according to the deal term sheet, Bloomberg and the sale was more than seven times oversubscribed. Yahoo Finance Buyers included global long-only funds, technology sector-focused funds, sovereign wealth funds and Asia-focused global investors. Yahoo Finance Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management and Situational Awareness Partners alone signaled indications of interest for as much as $7 billion worth of ADRs. Yahoo Finance The offering was led by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, with nine other firms participating. Yahoo Finance

For American investors, the sale opens a direct door to a company whose parts already sit inside products they own. SK Hynix, the second most valuable company in South Korea behind only Samsung, CNBC is one of three main makers of the memory used in phones, laptops and the servers running artificial-intelligence systems. The other two are Samsung and U.S.-listed Micron.

The timing is bold. SK Hynix shares ended Thursday down 25% from a record-high close in late June, though they remain more than triple where they started the year Yahoo Finance — up 235% in 2026 AOL as the AI-driven memory shortage sent prices and profits soaring. First-quarter revenue tripled to about $34.5 billion, and profit quintupled to $26.5 billion. AOL Rival Samsung this week reported operating profit increased 19-fold last quarter, AOL while Micron’s margins climbed toward 85% from 38% a year earlier. AOL

That heat cuts both ways. South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI Composite Index fell into a bear market on Wednesday, closing more than 20% below last month’s all-time high, AOL dragged down by the same two chipmakers that carried it up. The Roundhill Memory ETF is up 141% over the past 12 months, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF is up 140%. Stocktwits

SK Hynix plans to put the proceeds toward new production facilities in South Korea and the extreme-ultraviolet lithography scanners used to manufacture advanced semiconductors Stocktwits — tools only made by ASML in the Netherlands and costing up to $400 million each. CNBC The buildout is part of an $880 billion South Korean government-led initiative that SK Hynix and Samsung are ramping up investment behind. Yahoo Finance In the United States, the company is putting up a $4 billion advanced-packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, scheduled for completion in 2028, with up to $458 million in CHIPS Act funding and as much as $570 million in federal loans. CNBC SK Square, demerged from SK Telecom in 2021, holds a 20.5% interest in the chipmaker. CNBC

Not everyone is cheering. Jim Cramer of CNBC warned that bankers highlighting the heavy oversubscription were playing “a dangerous game,” and has spent much of 2026 flagging the building IPO pipeline as the market’s biggest short-term risk. Stocktwits Analysts at HSBC took the other side, hiking their SK Hynix price target to 4 million won from 2.9 million and saying the Nasdaq listing could boost the company’s valuation by as much as 20% and narrow its long-standing gap with Micron. Stocktwits

For SK Hynix, the payoff runs past cash. A U.S. listing widens its investor base to funds that never touched the Seoul shares and hands it a stronger currency for future deals, all while the memory business rides the sharpest upswing in its history. The risk is the one this industry knows well: the AI-spending wave paying for these new factories could cool before the concrete is dry.

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