SK Hynix Races to Nasdaq With $29 Billion Offer as Production Squeeze and Domestic Sell-Off Collide
Published on 07/08/2026 at 13:14 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The demand for SK Hynix's Nasdaq-bound shares has been nothing short of frenzied — the $29 billion ADR offering was multiple times oversubscribed, with anchor investors including Baillie Gifford Overseas, Coatue Management and Situational Awareness Partners committing up to $7 billion. Yet back in Seoul, the stock that those American Depositary Receipts represent has taken a beating. Trading on the Kospi closed Wednesday at 2,076,000 won, a 5.68% single-day slide that extended a seven-session rout to nearly 19%.
The dissonance between the U.S. reception and the domestic price action is stark. The ADR offering, which opens for trading on the Nasdaq on July 10, involves 17.79 million new shares structured as ADRs at a ratio of ten ADRs per ordinary share. Subscription closed on July 8 after being repeatedly oversubscribed — a vote of confidence from international investors that contrasts sharply with the mood in Seoul.
A partial explanation lies in the company's own production strategy. SK Hynix is quietly redirecting some of its manufacturing capacity away from high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips — the very products that powered its AI-driven surge — back toward standard DRAM, particularly DDR5 modules. The logic is straightforward: margins on commodity DRAM have risen sharply amid widespread supply shortages, while the HBM business faces uncertainty around Nvidia's next-generation "Rubin" architecture. As a result, the company is slowing the conversion of HBM3E lines to the upcoming HBM4 generation, preferring to pocket the near-term profits available in the DDR5 market.
The move is a notable recalibration for a company that saw revenue nearly triple between 2023 and 2025, swinging from a net loss to a substantial profit largely on the back of HBM sales to AI clients such as Nvidia and Google. SK Hynix remains a leading supplier of the memory chips essential for AI training and inference, but management appears to be hedging against a shift in demand patterns.
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None of this has deterred the company from pursuing an aggressive capacity expansion. On Wednesday, CEO Kwak Noh-jung unveiled plans to invest 80 trillion won (about $51.5 billion) in a new NAND flash fab in Cheongju, South Korea. The facility, designated M17, is expected to begin production in the first half of 2029. Combined with the previously announced P&T7 packaging plant — a facility for HBM chips slated for completion by 2027 — the total investment package in Cheongju reaches 100 trillion won, or roughly $64 billion.
The expansion is part of a broader ambition to triple SK Hynix's overall chip production by 2034, with capacity added in gradual stages to avoid flooding the market. Separately, the company is building the first of four planned fabrication plants at the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, targeting a start date in early 2027. Kwak announced the details alongside South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, underscoring the political heft of the semiconductor sector.
Government support is palpable. Last week, Seoul unveiled a sweeping $576 billion industrial program aimed at building a large-scale manufacturing hub, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics designated as key players. For SK Hynix, the state backing arrives at a moment when its home-market investors are on edge.
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Despite the recent sell-off, the longer-term numbers remain striking. The stock has still gained 206.65% since the start of the year, though it now sits 30.5% below its 52-week high of 2,987,000 won reached on June 25. The 50-day moving average stands at 2,108,680 won — roughly 1.5% below Wednesday's close — while the relative strength index reads 47.4, indicating a neutral position. The annualized 30-day volatility of around 114% captures the acute nervousness around the stock.
The Nasdaq debut on Friday will provide a fresh window into how international investors value the story — a story that, at home, has suddenly become far more complicated.
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