SK Hynix lists $29B ADR on Nasdaq, testing AI investor appetite

SK Hynix's $29 billion（約4.6兆円） ADR listing represents a landmark moment for the AI hardware supply chain. The company's extraordinary stock rally—up 770% in 12 months and outpacing even Micron Technology's 700% gain—reflects investor confidence that memory chips will remain central to AI infrastructure. SK Hynix's position as Nvidia's preferred high-bandwidth memory supplier has made it the cornerstone of South Korea's equity markets; Samsung and SK Hynix alone represent about half the KOSPI index's market cap, and their combined market cap is around 16 times that of the third-largest company in the index, according to Deutsche Bank.

The timing of this offering is strategically significant. It arrives as a real test of whether appetite for AI-related capital raises remains robust. Elsewhere in the AI ecosystem, token pricing—the core unit of compute that OpenAI and Anthropic sell to clients—has declined 20% since May, suggesting clients are balking at high prices and opting for cheaper or open-source alternatives. Major companies including Citi, Adobe, and Atlassian have capped or limited token spending. This divergence between bullish semiconductor valuations and softening AI software pricing may indicate that the market is reassessing which links in the AI supply chain will prove durable profit generators.