$28 billion.
That is the size of the offering SK Hynix will price tonight ahead of its Nasdaq debut on Friday. The world's second-largest memory chipmaker is selling 177.9 million American depositary shares at roughly $158 per ADR under the ticker SKHY, each representing one-tenth of a common share traded in Seoul. The proceeds will fund capacity expansion at SK Hynix's fabrication facilities in South Korea, where the next generation of HBM4 memory stacks is already in development.
If the deal prices at the top of the range, it surpasses Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion offering in 2019 and Alibaba's comparable debut in 2014. Only SpaceX's $85.7 billion IPO last month was larger.
Bookrunners reported orders at seven times the available shares. That level of oversubscription typically signals upward pricing pressure on the first day of trading. What makes this listing different from a typical large-cap debut is what SK Hynix actually makes.
The company holds roughly half the global market for high-bandwidth memory, the specialized DRAM inside every AI server rack. HBM chips are the single biggest supply bottleneck in the AI buildout. Micron, the only US-listed pure-play competitor, holds about a fifth of the market and has nearly quadrupled over the past year on the same demand cycle. SK Hynix's listing gives US investors direct access to the company supplying the most constrained component in the AI supply chain.
SK Hynix carries a premium valuation to Micron on most earnings-based metrics. HBM margins run well above conventional DRAM, and the company has guided for continued revenue acceleration through at least 2027. But the premium also reflects a business where capacity investment is front-loaded and competition from Samsung and Micron is accelerating. The question is whether HBM pricing power holds as supply scales or whether it commoditizes the way standard DRAM has in every prior cycle.
The index math adds another dimension. Once SK Hynix meets Nasdaq's seasoning requirements, it becomes eligible for benchmark inclusion. After SpaceX entered the Nasdaq-100 in record time this week, the path from listing to index membership is shorter than investors assumed. When that happens, passive funds will need to buy SKHY in proportion to its weight, creating a second wave of forced demand.
For investors who already own Micron or semiconductor ETFs like SMH, SK Hynix's arrival reshapes the competitive landscape. Micron's advantage has been its status as the only liquid US vehicle for the HBM trade. That exclusivity ends Friday. Whether the listing validates the memory sector broadly or redirects capital from Micron into SKHY is the positioning question that matters most.
The timing adds weight. SK Hynix is listing into a market where chip stocks just had their worst week since June, with Samsung's sell-the-news print and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF dropping more than 4% to start Q3. Whether SKHY's debut absorbs that selling pressure or gets swept up in it will set the tone for the semiconductor complex through the back half of earnings season.
Samsung's results last week flagged the downside. Record quarterly profits, and the stock fell 6%. The memory cycle is mature enough that beats alone no longer lift share prices. SK Hynix will face the same test once the listing excitement fades.
Wednesday's FOMC minutes showed nine of eighteen participants projecting higher rates by year-end. That hawkish lean compounds the June 26 PCE report, which printed core inflation at 2.8%, a three-year high. Oil has climbed from the mid-$60s to around $75 on the Iran escalation since then, and the July 24 CPI print is shaping up as the most consequential data release of the summer.
PepsiCo reported this morning. Revenue came in at $24.18 billion, ahead of the $23.96 billion consensus. Earnings of $2.20 missed the $2.21 estimate by a penny. North American snacks and beverages lagged while international markets carried the quarter. The company reiterated full-year guidance.
Delta reports tomorrow morning. The Street expects $1.48 in Q2 EPS. Results for the quarter are locked, but the forward guide will price in jet fuel costs that have risen sharply since Iran hostilities resumed.
Wednesday's close: S&P 500 at 7,483. Dow at 52,348. Nasdaq at 25,871. Oil around $74. Gold near $4,030. The 10-year yield at 4.59%.
