SK Hynix Maps Out $14 Billion US Listing and Five-Year Capacity Blitz as Nvidia Meeting Looms

SK Hynix files $14B ADR, to double AI memory output; stock up 239% YTD; market cap tops $1T; Nvidia CEO meeting key.

SK Hynix is charging ahead on two fronts: a blockbuster American Depositary Receipt offering worth up to $14 billion and a production-capacity doubling plan that aims to lock in its grip on the red-hot AI memory market. Shareholders have given the US listing an "overwhelmingly positive" reception, and the confidential filing is already under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Details on the exact timing and size remain under wraps, but the move is designed to tap institutional investors in the US who often restrict their portfolios to domestic equities.

The stock itself has been on a tear — up 239% since the start of the year — though it dipped 2.6% on Thursday to close at 2,298,000 won. The retreat came as the broader Kospi index slid nearly 2%, weighed down by mounting geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Technical indicators suggest the shares are stretched: the relative strength index sits at 76, firmly in overbought territory. Still, the current price is only about 4% below the record high hit in early June and a far cry from the trough touched in October 2025.

The company’s market capitalisation briefly crossed the $1 trillion mark last week, underscoring the magnitude of investor enthusiasm for the AI chip story. SK Hynix commands 57% of the global high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, and management sees pricing for these specialised chips remaining favourable well into next year as negotiations with customers take shape.

On the manufacturing side, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won used the Computex trade show in Taipei to unveil a concrete expansion target for the first time: wafer production capacity will double within five years. The move addresses a persistent shortage of AI memory chips that the company believes could stretch all the way to 2030. Building a new fabrication plant takes at least three years and runs into the billions of dollars, making the combination of the US listing and the capacity ramp a high-stakes bet on sustained demand.

Parallel investments are already underway. Air Liquide is ploughing €200 million into a high-purity nitrogen facility in South Korea that will supply a new SK Hynix plant dedicated to packaging and testing HBM chips. The plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2027. Chey also met with Foxconn Chairman Liu Yangwei in Taipei to explore deeper cooperation on AI servers and data centres.

All eyes now turn to a crucial meeting scheduled for June 5, when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang kicks off a four-day visit to South Korea. He is set to sit down with SK Group’s top brass to lock in supply volumes for HBM and hash out plans for next-generation AI data centres. The outcome of that meeting will likely shape SK Hynix’s capacity priorities and revenue visibility for the quarters ahead.