SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is set to attend SK Hynix’s Nasdaq American depositary receipt (ADR) listing ceremony in New York on July 10, a move that underscores the chipmaker’s push to raise its profile with global investors as demand for artificial intelligence memory continues to surge.
Chey is expected to join SK Hynix Chief Executive Kwak Noh-jung and other senior executives at the event, where the company will outline its competitive strengths and long-term growth strategy to institutional investors.
The ADR offering, valued at roughly $31 billion, includes the issuance of up to 17.79 million new shares, representing about 2.5% of SK Hynix’s outstanding shares. The proceeds will finance the first fabrication plant at the Yongin semiconductor cluster, a new advanced packaging facility in Cheongju, and capital investments including extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems.
The listing is designed to broaden SK Hynix’s access to global capital markets while reinforcing its position as a key supplier of AI memory chips, particularly high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which has become essential for AI accelerators and data-center infrastructure.
Chey’s attendance signals a broader effort to persuade investors that SK Hynix should be valued as an AI technology leader rather than a cyclical commodity memory producer.
In Super Momentum, a book published earlier this year chronicling SK Hynix’s success in HBM, Chey argued that the market continues to undervalue the company by viewing it primarily as a commodity memory manufacturer. He wrote that SK Hynix “needs to become ten times larger” to reach its long-term potential.
The company’s strategy is increasingly focused on expanding beyond conventional memory chips into customized AI memory solutions, a shift executives believe could support higher long-term earnings and valuation.
Industry observers also expect Chey to meet with executives from major U.S. technology companies, including Nvidia and Tesla, during his visit.
Chey met Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley in February to discuss expanding cooperation beyond HBM to next-generation server memory modules, NAND flash products and AI data-center infrastructure. The two executives met again during Huang’s visit to South Korea last month, reaffirming their strategic partnership as AI investment accelerates.
