SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chip giant already listed on the KOSPI, is laying the groundwork for a potential U.S. listing that could reportedly raise about $10 billion to $14 billion in funding.
The company announced this week that it has confidentially filed Form F-1 with a listing, targeting the second half of 2026.
But the real question is not how much it can raise, but whether a U.S. listing could boost its trading value as one of the most important players in the AI chip supply chain.
Despite its critical role in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component that powers AI systems for companies like Nvidia, the stock has historically traded at a discount to its global peers, according to a Seoul-based semiconductor analyst. Although it has a market capitalization of approximately $440 billion, its valuation multiple is still lower than that of publicly traded U.S. semiconductor companies. This raises the question of whether geography, rather than fundamentals, is partly driving the gap.
The move is widely seen as an effort to increase its value in line with global competitors such as Micron.
“SK Hynix’s U.S. listing could help close a long-standing valuation gap with its global peers. Despite having similar or, in some areas, stronger production capacity than U.S.-based chipmakers, the Korean company has historically traded at a discount, in part due to its primary listing in Korea,” the analyst told TechCrunch.
The analyst also commented on the structural factors shaping the deal. “SK Square, the largest shareholder of SK Hynix, holds 20.07% as of December 2025, and must maintain at least a 20% stake in accordance with Korean holding company regulations.”
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Based on the current stock price, issuing new shares of about 2% could raise SK Square’s capital by $10 billion to $14 billion while allowing it to maintain its ownership threshold, analysts said. (Under Korea’s Fair Trade Act, a holding company must maintain a minimum stake in its subsidiaries, and in the case of a listed company, it must hold at least 20% to maintain control.)
There is precedent. For example, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has seen its U.S.-listed shares trade at a premium to domestic stocks, particularly during periods of strong AI-based demand, suggesting that cross-listings may impact how investors price the same underlying business.
The move is already causing ripples across the wider Korean chip sector. Following SK Hynix’s filing, some investors are now pressuring Samsung Electronics to consider a similar U.S. listing. Majority shareholder Artisan Partners said Friday that a U.S. listing (technically American Depositary Receipts, or ADRs) could not only help boost Samsung’s value but also provide U.S. individual investors with an opportunity to buy shares, according to a Bloomberg report.
Driving Capital to Meet AI-Driven Demand
SK Hynix’s ADR listing plan is also widely accepted as a move to secure funds ahead of increased capital expenditures to meet the growing demand for AI semiconductor memory.
SK Hynix Chairman Kwak No-jeong said at the general shareholders’ meeting on March 25 that financial capabilities are the key to sustainable growth in the AI era, and that the company is targeting about $75 billion (over 100 trillion won) in net cash to support long-term investment.
Skyrocketing memory costs and supply constraints have not only been one of the bottlenecks slowing AI deployment, but have also impacted other industries such as consumer gamers. This is a situation called “RAMmageddon” and is expected to last until at least 2027 if nothing changes in the market, Nature reports.
Time will tell whether that doomsday prediction is correct. Big tech companies are trying to solve the RAMmageddon problem in other ways beyond increased manufacturing. For example, this week Google introduced a technology called TurboQuant, an ultra-efficient AI memory compression algorithm. This allows AI to use memory much more efficiently.
Nonetheless, these signals indicate that more memory production will be needed. SK Hynix is preparing for a wave of capital-intensive projects. Samsung Electronics plans to invest approximately $400 billion by 2050 to build a semiconductor cluster in Yongin. In addition, the amount of capital required has increased as new facilities are being built in Korea and Indiana with investment plans of approximately $25 billion and $3.3 billion, respectively.
The chipmaker said this week it will acquire advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners from ASML for $7.9 billion by 2027 to boost production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI.
All of this will be supported by a blockbuster US IPO. And this could force other Korean chip makers to follow suit.
