SK Hynix Secures $7 Billion in Anchor Commitments for Nasdaq Listing as Domestic Sell-Off and Production Recalibration Create Mixed Picture

SK Hynix raises up to $29B in largest foreign US listing since Alibaba, with Baillie Gifford, Coatue, and Situational Awareness Partners backing the deal amid domestic stock sell-off.

The order books are now closed for SK Hynix’s landmark American Depositary Receipt offering, and the numbers are striking. The South Korean memory-chip giant has drawn commitments from three marquee investors — Baillie Gifford Overseas, Coatue Management, and Situational Awareness Partners — that together are expected to absorb up to $7 billion of the deal. The total offering, which comprises 17.79 million new shares packaged as ADRs at a ratio of ten ADRs per ordinary share, is heading for a valuation of as much as $29 billion. Trading is scheduled to begin on the Nasdaq on Friday, July 10, in what would rank as the largest US listing by a foreign company since Alibaba’s debut.

The flood of institutional demand stands in stark contrast to the mood in Seoul, where SK Hynix’s domestic-listed stock has been under heavy pressure. After closing Tuesday at 2,201,000 Won — a 12.07% weekly decline — the shares tumbled a further 5.68% on Wednesday to end at 2,076,000 Won. That trimmed the year-to-date advance to 206%, still a stunning rally by any measure but well off the 52-week high of 2,987,000 Won reached on June 25. The stock now sits roughly 24.6% below that peak and only 6.75% above its 50-day moving average of 2,108,680 Won. An RSI reading of 47.4 places it squarely in neutral territory, while the annualized 30-day volatility of 113% underscores the frayed nerves surrounding the name. For perspective, the shares have skyrocketed about 358% from their October 2025 trough of 491,500 Won.

The domestic sell-off appears to reflect two concerns: broader anxiety about a potential bubble in artificial-intelligence stocks and doubts about the sustainability of SK Hynix’s near-term earnings mix. The company has long been celebrated as the dominant supplier of high-bandwidth-memory (HBM) chips, commanding an estimated 56–58% of the global market for the specialized memory that powers AI systems from Nvidia and Google. Yet behind the headlines, a notable strategic shift is under way. SK Hynix is reportedly reallocating some of its HBM3E production lines toward conventional DDR5 memory, where supply shortages and higher operating margins are proving more immediately attractive. The company has also chosen to delay the conversion of those lines to the next-generation HBM4 standard, citing uncertainty around the timing of Nvidia’s forthcoming “Rubin” chip generation.

This recalibration does not mean SK Hynix is stepping back from the HBM race. On the contrary, the capital raised from the Nasdaq listing is earmarked for aggressive expansion: the company intends to build new fabrication plants, boost its US footprint, and double its wafer output to roughly one million wafers per month by 2031. The immediate shift toward DDR5 is a tactical move to capture higher margins in a tight DRAM market while keeping the HBM pipeline intact for when demand crystallizes around HBM4.

South Korea’s government is adding its own tailwind. Last week, Seoul unveiled a sweeping industrial package targeting $576 billion in semiconductor investments, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics slated to anchor a major manufacturing hub. For SK Hynix, that policy support arrives just as the company is about to test investor appetite in a new time zone. All eyes are now on Friday’s first trade, when the world will see whether the growth story — and the strategic pivot it requires — plays as well in New York as the order book suggests.