SK hynix to lead 'AI super-momentum' as Chey rings Nasdaq opening bell

Fourteen years after SK Group acquired Hynix Semiconductor from creditor management, SK hynix made its debut on the US Nasdaq market on Friday. The move marks a spectacular revival of a semiconductor dream dating to 1978, when SK Group's late founder Chey Jong-hyun established Sunkyong Semiconductor — a venture wound down amid the oil shock.

Global institutional investors placed large bets on the company's AI semiconductor competitiveness, built from the earliest stages of the high-bandwidth memory market. SK hynix locked in $26.5 billion (about 40 trillion won) in proceeds, setting a new record for the largest US IPO by a foreign company.

SK hynix plans to use its American depositary receipt listing as a springboard to lead what it calls the AI super-momentum era. The 40 trillion won raised through the IPO will be channeled into advanced AI semiconductor production facilities. Attention is also focused on whether SK Group's broader global AI investment plans will take shape — and on what Chey Tae-won, SK Group chairman, will say when he rings the Nasdaq opening bell.

SK hynix's ADR officially listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Friday (local time), with the listing ceremony set for around 10 p.m. Korean Standard Time. The company will begin trading under the temporary ticker "SKHYV" before switching to the permanent ticker "SKHY" starting Monday.

The Nasdaq listing traces its origins to SK Telecom's acquisition of Hynix in 2012. SK Group had long deliberated over entering the semiconductor business before making the bold decision with a vision of becoming a global memory chip leader — despite concerns that the capital-intensive, cyclical nature of the industry could turn the venture into a money pit.

The AI era has since vindicated that choice. Although SK hynix posted an operating loss of nearly 8 trillion won in 2023, raising group-wide concerns, the proliferation of AI agents drove a surge in memory chip demand. The company's value has climbed sharply. Its market cap, which stood at about 13 trillion won at the end of 2011, has reached 1,560 trillion won, placing it among the roughly 10 companies worldwide with a market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion.

HBM is by far the force behind the Nasdaq listing. The technology's potential was far from obvious in the early days — repeated failures led employees to nickname the HBM team the "Aoji coal mine," a reference to a notoriously harsh North Korean labor site. That changed in 2013, when SK hynix became the first company in the world to develop HBM, turning the coal mine into a gold mine.

During investor roadshows ahead of the listing, the company highlighted its unrivaled HBM competitiveness. SK hynix held a 56.4 percent share of the global HBM market by sales in the first quarter of this year, making it the dominant leader. The company has completed development of sixth-generation HBM4 and established mass production capacity. Last month, it supplied Nvidia with samples of its seventh-generation HBM4E 12-layer product, designed for next-generation AI accelerators.

SK hynix aims to use the Nasdaq listing as a platform to establish itself as a "full-stack AI memory creator." Targeting the AI data center market, the company has built an integrated portfolio spanning HBM, low-power DRAM (LPDDR), graphics DRAM (GDDR) and enterprise solid-state drives.

The company intends to leverage that portfolio to capture the AI semiconductor market. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who has driven the company's M&A strategy as well as additional investments in NAND flash through Kioxia and Solidigm, shares that view.

In an interview published earlier this year in the book "Super-Momentum," Chey said, "We were standing at the crossroads," adding that "the HBM story is one of success for those who positioned themselves ahead of the direction in which the AI industry was growing and evolving." The strategy is to lead the market at the outset of what the company sees as an AI super-momentum cycle — one expected to expand from agentic AI to physical AI.

To that end, the ADR proceeds will be invested in strengthening technological leadership. All $26.5 billion raised through the new share issuance will go toward AI semiconductor investment. Plans call for 31 trillion won to be invested in the first fab of the Yongin semiconductor cluster, whose first clean room is set to begin operation in the first quarter of next year, and 19 trillion won for the advanced packaging fab P&T7 in Cheongju. An additional 12 trillion won is earmarked for the purchase of next-generation EUV lithography equipment from ASML.

Attention now turns to the message Chey will deliver at the Nasdaq listing ceremony. He is expected to speak about the significance of entering the US market, outline future investment plans and share his vision for the AI semiconductor business.

The deal represents the largest US IPO ever by a foreign company, making it a milestone for SK Group as a whole. It is also the first time a Korean semiconductor company has listed on a US exchange. Chey and SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung traveled to the United States to mark the occasion.

SK Group announced at a national briefing on three major mega-projects held at Cheong Wa Dae late last month that it plans to transform South Korea from an AI consumer into an AI exporter. Under the plan, SK hynix will take the lead in supplying AI memory, while SK Telecom will build AI factories that produce intelligence.

Investment in the US AI data center ecosystem is also expected to accelerate. In February, SK hynix established an AI company in the United States to pursue AI solution business opportunities. SK Telecom, SK Inc. and SK Innovation have also pledged capital contributions, pursuing group-wide synergies through joint investment.