HBM dominates and speeds up to enter the U.S. stock market: SK Hynix is expected to go public as soon as August. Can it break through the "Korean discount"?

According to foreign media reports citing informed sources, South Korean storage chip giant SK Hynix is reportedly planning to go public in the United States as early as August this year. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to approve its application to list American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on June 22. This global leader in HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) deeply integrated with the NVIDIA AI computing industry chain is seeking to open up financing channels for astronomical capital expenditures through a US stock market listing, while seeking to overcome the long-standing "valuation discount" dilemma faced by South Korean companies. SK Hynix confirmed in a statement, "SK Hynix plans to issue ADRs by 2026, but specific details such as scale and timing have not been determined." This target time frame is significantly ahead of the previous statement of "listing within the year," with plans to raise approximately $10 billion, potentially making it one of the largest foreign company listings in the US in recent years. The underwriting team is in place, aiming to list in August In March of this year, SK Hynix reportedly confidentially submitted an IPO registration application for listing ADRs to the SEC, but the company stated that the specific timetable was not yet determined. The latest news indicates that the underwriting team has now set a target listing window of June to July, significantly ahead of the previous vague statements, indicating that the company is progressing in the US listing process at an accelerated pace. An investment banking source revealed, "Even if the stock price falls, the ADR listing schedule will not change, as the company's entry into the US stock market is far more important than the timing." In terms of underwriter allocation, SK Hynix has designated Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America as underwriters for the US listing plan, forming a prestigious underwriting team. The investment banking industry estimates that the size of this new stock offering is approximately $10 billion. If successful, it will be one of the largest foreign company listings in the US in recent years. SK Group Chairman has previously stated that listing in the US will help expand SK Hynix's shareholder base beyond South Korea, increase exposure to American and international investors, and strengthen its global influence. HBM leader achieves outstanding performance, annual profit exceeds Samsung for the first time SK Hynix is one of the absolute leaders in the global storage chip market and holds a nearly monopolistic position in the HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) core AI computing field. Financial data shows that in the 2025 fiscal year, SK Hynix's annual revenue reached 97.15 trillion Korean won (approximately 472.1 billion RMB), a year-on-year increase of 47%; operating profit was 47.21 trillion Korean won, doubling year-on-year by 101%, setting new highs in revenue, profit, and net profit. Most importantly, SK Hynix's annual operating profit in 2025 exceeded that of long-term leader Samsung Electronics for the first time, signaling a historic turning point in the competition landscape of the South Korean semiconductor industry. HBM has become the core driver of SK Hynix's outstanding performance. In 2025, the company's HBM sales increased by over 100% year-on-year, accounting for 42% of total revenue, with a single product contributing over 19 trillion Korean won (approximately 92.3 billion RMB) in operating profit. Counterpoint Research estimates that SK Hynix had a 57% revenue share in the HBM market in the third quarter of 2025, while primary competitor Samsung had only 22%, and Micron even less. Local media reports indicate that SK Hynix has secured orders for over two-thirds of NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin product's HBM supply, deeply locking in the incremental dividend of AI computing power. Competition in the HBM market is intensifying. Samsung Electronics has announced plans to supply HBM4 chips to NVIDIA starting in February 2026, and has undergone final quality certification tests, seeking to narrow the gap with SK Hynix on new product offerings. Samsung initially fell behind in the HBM3E competition and faced setbacks with the fifth-generation HBM3E failing to pass NVIDIA's certification, but is actively fighting back in the HBM4 arena. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that the three major memory chip manufacturers - SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Micron Technology - all qualify to provide HBM4 chips, indicating that the three companies are soon to commence large-scale production and supply of new HBM products. Analysts anticipate that SK Hynix will maintain a high market share and dominant position in the HBM4 market, but Samsung is expected to make substantial progress on new product offerings, with the HBM4 competition mainly between SK Hynix and Samsung. Meanwhile, the technological competition in HBM is shifting from the battle of stacking layers and capacity to a new battlefield centered on thermal management. SK Hynix has introduced the iHBM solution that integrates cooling components directly into the package and plans to use this architecture in next-generation products like HBM5. Attempting to break the "Korean discount" One of the core reasons behind SK Hynix's acceleration towards a US listing is to narrow the gap in valuation with its American peers - this is both a demand to enhance its influence in the AI computing industry chain and a key tool to attract global capital attention. Although SK Hynix's stock price has tripled over the past year, its valuation multiples still significantly lag behind its American counterparts. According to the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo, based on this year's performance expectations, the securities industry gives SK Hynix an expected price-to-earnings ratio of only 3 to 4 times, while Micron Technology has an 8 times multiple, and SanDisk even reaches 19 times. This valuation discount is not unique to SK Hynix. Samsung Electronics faces a similar dilemma - despite an anticipated 400% increase in net profit this year, its forward price-to-earnings ratio is less than 6 times, while TSMC is close to 20 times and NVIDIA is as high as 22 times. Bulls argue that the demand for AI in storage has expanded from HBM to general products like DRAM, leading to a new structural paradigm in the storage industry; bears, on the other hand, contend that storage profit has historically fluctuated significantly with economic cycles and that low valuation is a reasonable pricing based on historical patterns. Furthermore, investment banking sources point out that even based on Bloomberg's forecasted earnings per share, SK Hynix's expected price-to-earnings ratio is only 4 times - highlighting significant valuation disparities between SK Hynix and American counterparts like Micron. This gap is known as the "Korean discount", where South Korean companies have long faced undervaluation compared to global peers due to factors such as transparency of corporate governance and geopolitical risks. Going public with ADRs in the US will help SK Hynix engage with passive funds, ETFs, and long-term institutional funds that only invest in US stocks, allowing for a reassessment of its valuation. There is a precedent for South Korean companies issuing ADRs to achieve valuation correction. Coupang raised $4.6 billion in 2021 when it listed on the NYSE, making it one of the largest IPOs by an Asian company at the time. SK Hynix's potential fundraising amount could be more than double that of Coupang, potentially becoming another benchmark case of opening up the valuation ceiling through a US stock market listing. A new variable in the capital tide of the AI race SK Hynix's accelerated path towards listing in the US is driven by the company's significant capital expenditure plans. Its parent company, SK Group, has established a long-term strategic plan to invest 6 quadrillion Korean won in Icheon by 2050. In February of this year, SK Hynix decided to invest 21.6 trillion Korean won by the end of 2030 to advance the construction of the first phase of the semiconductor cluster in Icheon, with a total scale reaching 31 trillion Korean won, including the facility investments announced in July 2024. Additionally, the company announced earlier this year that it plans to establish an artificial intelligence solutions company in the US with an investment of up to $10 billion. In terms of financing tools, SK Hynix liquidated nearly all of its 12.24 trillion Korean won preferred shares in January of this year, keeping only a portion for employee incentives, making a new stock offering the only viable path for a US listing. SK Hynix's US listing comes at a critical window for global AI companies landing on capital markets. OpenAI has confidentially submitted an IPO application with a valuation exceeding $850 billion and is expected to go public as early as the fourth quarter of this year. Their competitor, Anthropic, has also secretly submitted an IPO application, and its valuation has surged to $965 billion. Additionally, SpaceX under Elon Musk is also advancing towards an IPO. The combined valuation of these three major AI giants could exceed $3 trillion, with potential fundraising sizes approaching or even exceeding the total US IPO market volume since 2022. Goldman Sachs estimates that from 2026 to 2031, the total investments in the global AI industry in fields such as data centers, computing power, and electricity will reach $7.6 trillion. As a core supplier of HBM, SK Hynix will gain stronger financing capabilities and global capital influence after successfully listing on the US stock market - providing funds for astronomical capacity expansion, and forming a new landscape directly competing with Micron in the US stock storage chip sector, accelerating the reshuffling of global capital in the AI computing industry chain. SK Hynix's path to listing in the US has reached a crucial juncture, but there are still several unresolved questions. Regarding the timing window, whether SEC approval progresses smoothly and whether it will be approved as scheduled during the week of June 22 will directly determine whether the August listing can be realized. In terms of fundraising size, whether the preliminary target of $10 billion can be maintained amidst market fluctuations remains to be seen in light of changing market conditions. Regarding valuation landing, after the ADR listing in the US, what pricing US stock investors will give SK Hynix and whether it can truly break through the valuation ceiling of "4 times price-to-earnings ratio" will determine the success or failure of this listing strategy. For global investors, the listing of SK Hynix's ADRs will provide a structured channel to directly participate in the world's largest HBM supplier - this AI computing leader, attractive in terms of technology moat, market position, shareholder returns, is presenting a new valuation assessment to the global capital market through its listing on the US stock market.