SK Hynix raises $26.5B in largest foreign IPO in U.S. history; commits $8.6B to ASML

SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chipmaker, completed the largest foreign listing in American history on July 10, raising $26.5 billion in a U.S. debut that marks a watershed moment for chipmaker globalization. The IPO comes as HBM (high-bandwidth memory) demand from AI data centers remains acute, with SK Hynix positioned as a critical supplier of specialized memory for NVIDIA GPUs and custom AI accelerators alongside Samsung and Micron.

Concurrent with its U.S. listing, SK Hynix announced a $8.6 billion commitment to acquire advanced EUV lithography equipment from ASML, signaling aggressive capacity expansion plans for its next-generation memory nodes. The company is simultaneously executing a $1.1 trillion (KRW 1.1 quadrillion) domestic investment strategy in South Korea over the next decade, alongside Samsung's $90 billion South Korean fab expansion pledge, reflecting geopolitical hedging of critical chip production across U.S. and Korean territories.

The IPO capital and capital equipment spending underscore memory chipmakers' conviction that AI-driven data center demand will sustain elevated capex through the 2030s, even as recent semiconductor selloffs have raised questions about valuation levels and returns on infrastructure investments. SK Hynix's debut U.S. listing also signals confidence in the durability of American regulatory stability and onshoring incentives for critical chipmaking capacity.