South Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing

South Korean chip maker SK hynix will raise $26.5bn in what will be one of the world’s biggest stock sales. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters View image in fullscreen South Korean chip maker SK hynix will raise $26.5bn in what will be one of the world’s biggest stock sales. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters South Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing SK hynix, a supplier of advanced memory chips, has seen profits skyrocket thanks to the global race to build AI datacentres South Korean chip maker SK hynix set pricing for its mega US listing on Friday, aiming to raise $26.5bn as it takes advantage of the AI boom in what will be one of the world’s biggest ever stock sales. The Asian semiconductor giant plans to issue the equivalent of about 18m shares on Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index later in the day. SK hynix, a supplier of advanced memory chips to industry behemoth Nvidia, has seen profits skyrocket thanks to the global race to build artificial intelligence datacentres . Tech stocks have tumbled in recent weeks on fears of overheated valuations – SK hynix has soared more than 220% this year in Seoul – and concerns about when the enormous global AI spending will reap returns. But Friday’s Nasdaq listing has enjoyed considerable interest, and was more than seven times oversubscribed, according to US media. 3,000% bonuses but a growing wealth divide: South Korea grapples with its AI chip boom Read more The amount raised did not come close to the record $75bn raised in SpaceX’s IPO last month , which made founder Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. But it beat out Saudi Aramco’s 2019 $25.6bn debut and the $21.8bn raised by Chinese tech firm Alibaba in its New York initial public offering. SK hynix will list through something called American depositary shares (ADS), which allow slices of foreign companies to be traded on US public markets. The company said 177.9m depositary shares, each representing one-tenth of a usual share, had been set “at an initial public offering price of $149.00 per ADS”. The offering is being led by BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs (Asia) and JP Morgan Securities, SK hynix said. SK hynix shares rose 2.7% on Seoul’s Kospi index after the announcement. The company’s market capitalisation on the Kospi soared past $1tn in May. That milestone was also recently hit by domestic rival Samsung Electronics and US chip maker Micron – with AI pushing the three firms into a previously exclusive club of about a dozen $1tn companies, nearly all American. An image of an SK hynix jacket went viral in South Korea this year as a symbol of wealth and success, with parody posts depicting it as a “golden ticket” to luxury boutiques or better dating prospects. Samsung, SK hynix and Micron dominate the global market for the advanced components known as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), used in AI servers alongside other data-crunching semiconductors. As chip makers plough resources into