{"id":361716,"date":"2026-03-27T21:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/361716\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T21:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:55:07","slug":"memory-chip-giant-sk-hynix-could-help-end-rammageddon-with-blockbuster-us-ipo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/361716\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory chip giant SK hynix could help end ‘RAMmageddon’ with blockbuster US IPO"},"content":{"rendered":"

SK hynix<\/a>, a South Korean memory chip giant already listed on the KOSPI, is laying the groundwork for a potential U.S. listing that could reportedly raise an estimated $10 billion to $14 billion.<\/p>\n

The company announced this week that it has confidentially filed a Form F-1 with the listing, targeting the second half of 2026.<\/p>\n

But the real question isn\u2019t just how much it can raise: it\u2019s whether a U.S. listing could increase its trading value as one of the most critical players in the AI chip supply chain.<\/p>\n

Despite its critical role in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component powering AI systems from companies like Nvidia, the stock has historically traded at a discount to global peers, according to a Seoul-based semiconductor analyst. It\u2019s got a market cap of around $440 billion, but its valuation multiples remain below those of U.S.-listed semiconductor firms, raising questions about whether geography, rather than fundamentals, is partly driving the gap.<\/p>\n

The move is widely seen as an effort to increase its valuation to match global peers like Micron.<\/p>\n

\u201cSK hynix\u2019s U.S. listing could help close a long-standing valuation gap with global peers. Despite having comparable \u2013 or in some areas stronger \u2013 production capacity than U.S.-based chipmakers, the Korean company has historically traded at a discount, partly due to its primary listing in Korea,\u201d the analyst told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

The analyst also mentioned structural factors shaping the deal. \u201cSK Square, SK hynix\u2019s largest shareholder, which held 20.07% as of December 2025, is required to maintain a stake of at least 20% under Korea\u2019s holding company rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Based on current share prices, issuing roughly 2% in new shares could raise $10 billion to $14 billion while allowing SK Square to maintain its ownership threshold, the analyst said. (Under Korea\u2019s Fair Trade Act, holding companies must maintain minimum ownership stakes in subsidiaries, at least 20% for listed entities, to retain control.)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s precedent. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), for example, has seen its U.S.-listed shares trade at a premium to its domestic shares at times, particularly during periods of strong AI-driven demand, suggesting that cross-listing can influence how investors price the same underlying business.<\/p>\n

The move is already rippling across the broader Korean chip sector. Following SK hynix\u2019s filing, some investors are now pushing Samsung Electronics to consider a similar U.S. listing. Artisan Partners, a major shareholder, said Friday that a U.S. listing (technically known as an American depositary receipt, or ADR), could help Samsung boost its valuation, too, as well as give U.S. retail investors a chance to buy its stock, according to a Bloomberg report.<\/a><\/p>\n

A capital push to meet AI-driven demand<\/p>\n

SK hynix\u2019s planned ADR listing is also widely seen as a move to secure funding ahead of increased capital spending to meet the rising demand for memory from AI semiconductors.<\/p>\n

At its annual general meeting on March 25, SK hynix CEO Noh-Jung Kwak said financial capacity will be key to sustaining growth in the AI era, adding that the company is targeting approximately $75 billion (more than 100 trillion KRW) in net cash to support long-term investments.<\/p>\n

Soaring cost for memory, and limited supply, has been one of the bottlenecks slowing AI builds, but also impacting other industries, like consumer gamers. It\u2019s a situation that\u2019s been dubbed \u201cRAMmageddon\u201d<\/a> and, if nothing in the market changes, is expected to continue until at least 2027, Nature reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

Time will tell if that doomsday prediction holds up. The tech giants are working on solving RAMmageddon in other ways beyond increased manufacturing. For instance, Google this week introduced a tech called TurboQuant<\/a>, an ultra-efficient AI memory compression algorithm. It allows AI to become vastly more efficient in using memory.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the signals indicate that more memory production will be necessary as well. SK hynix is gearing up for a wave of capital-intensive projects. The company plans to invest around $400 billion by 2050 to build a semiconductor cluster in Yongin, South Korea. It is also constructing new facilities in South Korea and Indiana, with planned investments of about $25 billion and $3.3 billion, respectively, underscoring the scale of capital required.<\/p>\n

The chipmaker said this week it will acquire advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners from ASML by 2027 in a deal worth $7.9 billion, aimed at boosting high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production for AI.<\/p>\n

All of this would be supported by a blockbuster U.S. IPO. And that could lead other Korean chip makers to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SK hynix, a South Korean memory chip giant already listed on the KOSPI, is laying the groundwork for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,32597,46,4607,71979,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-361716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-ipos","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-memory","15":"tag-sk-hynix","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}