SK Hynix's financing in the U.S. may exceed Alibaba's to become the largest in history, with ADR financing up to 29 billion dollars

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix plans to raise up to 45 trillion won (approximately 29 billion USD) by issuing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) in New York, with the related transaction set to start in July. If successful, this financing scale will surpass Alibaba's 25 billion USD IPO in 2014, becoming one of the largest overseas equity financing projects in the history of South Korean companies, and approaching historical records in the global capital market.

According to the plan, SK Hynix will first issue shares in South Korea, then deposit the relevant shares into a South Korean securities depository as the underlying securities for the ADRs. South Korean regulators are expected to complete the review by July 3. The raised funds will primarily be used for the construction of the Yongin semiconductor cluster in South Korea and a factory in Indiana, USA, as well as the purchase of EUV extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment to support the expansion of advanced storage capacity related to AI. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America have been selected as the lead underwriters.

SK Hynix's confidence in this U.S. financing stems from its strong position in the AI industry chain. As a leading company in the global high bandwidth memory (HBM) sector, the company is a core supplier of AI accelerator chips for NVIDIA. Driven by AI demand, its stock price has increased by over 300% this year. CEO Lee Seok-hee stated that the company hopes to leverage the U.S. capital market to enhance its global influence and achieve a valuation level comparable to other AI hardware companies.