'Hynix needs to be 10 times bigger': Chey Tae-won heads to US for SK hynix Nasdaq listing

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is traveling to the United States to mark SK hynix's listing of American depositary receipts on the Nasdaq. Attention is also focused on whether he will meet with key customers during the trip.

According to industry sources Thursday, Chey will attend a Nasdaq listing ceremony for SK hynix ADRs in New York on Friday morning (local time), alongside SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung and other senior executives. At the event, Chey and the management team are expected to brief investors on SK hynix's competitiveness and medium- to long-term growth strategy.

The ADR offering is valued at around 43 trillion won ($28.2 billion), with up to 17.79 million new shares to be issued, representing approximately 2.5 percent of total outstanding shares. Proceeds will go toward construction of the first fabrication plant at the Yongin semiconductor cluster and the P&T7 advanced packaging fab in Cheongju, as well as acquisition of equipment including EUV scanners.

Chey's personal attendance is seen as a move to directly convey SK hynix's AI memory chip competitiveness and growth potential to global investors. The ADR listing was pursued to secure a proper valuation for SK hynix — now a pivotal player in AI infrastructure — in international capital markets.

Earlier this year, Chey wrote in "Super Momentum," a book chronicling SK hynix's HBM success story, that "the market still perceives SK hynix as a commodity manufacturer and has not recognized its higher value," adding that "Hynix needs to be 10 times bigger than it is now."

Meanwhile, some in the industry have raised the possibility that Chey could also meet with executives from Nvidia, Tesla and other major tech companies during his US visit. In February, Chey met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley to discuss cooperation on HBM, memory chips and AI data center development. The two met again last month when Huang visited South Korea, reaffirming their partnership.