South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix is set to launch a U.S. listing on the Nasdaq, aiming to raise about $28 billion in what could become one of the world's largest equity offerings, per Reuters. The move points to the company's effort to capitalize on surging investor demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure while broadening its global shareholder base.

One of the Largest Share Sales Ever

SK Hynix plans to issue 17.79 million new American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), with 10 ADRs representing one common share. The stock has surged about 250% this year (as of July 3, 2026), reflecting strong enthusiasm for AI-related semiconductor companies.

If completed as planned, the offering would rank among the largest share sales globally, trailing only the record-setting SpaceX IPO last month while exceeding the massive IPOs of Saudi Aramco and Alibaba (read: SpaceX Soars in Historic IPO: Should You Play SPCX ETFs or the Stock?).

AI Boom Drives Investor Interest

SK Hynix has emerged as one of the biggest winners of the AI revolution thanks to its leadership in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component for advanced AI servers. The company supplies HBM chips to leading AI players such as NVIDIA and Google, as pointed out in the same Reuters article.

Proceeds to Expand Manufacturing Capacity

SK Hynix intends to use the proceeds from the ADR sale to accelerate semiconductor production capacity in South Korea. The funds will primarily support the construction of new chip manufacturing facilities.

South Korea Doubles Down on Chips and AI

The offering comes shortly after South Korea unveiled a sweeping semiconductor and AI strategy centered on a $576 billion investment initiative aimed at strengthening the country's technological leadership.

The program will be anchored by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, with the government seeking to build a world-leading semiconductor ecosystem.

Inside the Valuation Comparison

SK Hynix (000660.KS) currently has a trailing twelve-month (TTM) price/earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.96X, while its forward P/E ratio stands at 8.30X, per Yahoo Finance data. In contrast, its competitor Micron Technology MU trades at a P/E (TTM) of 21.62X. MU shares currently trade at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of just 8.52X.

ETFs to Gain

A Nasdaq listing is expected to make SK Hynix shares significantly easier for U.S. investors to own, particularly retail investors and smaller institutional funds. Analysts also expect the company to become eligible for inclusion in the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index, potentially attracting substantial passive investment flows from index-tracking funds, per the same Reuters article.

iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX could thus be closely followed on the anticipated IPO. Apart from chip ETFs like SOXX and VanEck Semiconductor ETF SMH, the Nasdaq-100 ETF Invesco QQQ ETF QQQ will likely be a key beneficiary. Now, who can forget South Korea ETFs?

SK Hynix takes the top position iniShares MSCI South Korea ETF EWY. So, no wonder, the U.S. market entry of the company will leave a solid impact on EWY (read: Top-Performing ETF Areas of 1H 2026).

The IPO also puts focus on Renaissance IPO ETF IPO. Each quarter, the ETF is rebalanced as new IPOs are included and older members cycle out three years after their IPO. Constituents are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization with a cap imposed on any weightings exceeding 10%.

Then comes First Trust US Equity Opportunities ETF FPX, which follows a rules-based value-weighted index measuring the average performance of U.S. IPOs during their first 1,000 trading days.

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Invesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research Reports

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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