The American depositary receipt offering by South Korea’s SK Hynix was more than seven times oversubscribed, according to people familiar with the matter, a level of demand that positions the listing as the second-largest equity raise in history, behind only SpaceX’s record IPO last month. The company plans to sell 177.9 million ADRs on the Nasdaq, equivalent to 2.5 percent of its share capital, with final pricing set on Thursday and trading to begin Friday under the ticker SKHY. The strong order book, reported by multiple wire services citing confidential sources, comes despite a sharp pullback in global technology shares in recent weeks and suggests that institutional investors are distinguishing between speculative AI plays and the physical suppliers of the computing build-out.

The offering’s gravitational pull rests on SK Hynix’s dominance in high-bandwidth memory, the specialised DRAM chips that sit alongside Nvidia’s graphics processors in AI data centres. The company is the lead supplier of HBM to Nvidia, whose chief executive Jensen Huang publicly urged the firm to “please make more” during a trade show in Taiwan last month. That bottleneck has driven SK Hynix’s Seoul-listed shares up roughly 235 percent this year, propelling its market capitalisation past $1 trillion and briefly making it South Korea’s most valuable company. The proceeds, estimated at $28 billion, are earmarked for new fabrication plants and equipment as part of a broader public-private investment of 800 trillion won to expand semiconductor capacity in the country’s southwest.

Viewed from Seoul, the Nasdaq listing is a deliberate move to narrow the so-called Korea discount—the persistent valuation gap that sees domestic firms trade at lower multiples than global peers. SK Hynix currently trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 5.5 times, compared with 6.66 times for US rival Micron, despite holding a larger share of the HBM market. Analysts in London and New York note that the ADR structure, with ten receipts representing one ordinary share, gives US investors a dollar-denominated instrument in their own time zone, potentially attracting a premium over the local stock. Some fund managers expect the ADRs to price at a discount to the Seoul close to ensure a strong debut, though a London-based hedge fund manager cited by financial media argued that the oversubscription eliminates the need for such a concession.

The listing also serves as a barometer for the AI investment cycle. While shares of chipmakers worldwide have lost momentum—SK Hynix itself is down a quarter from its June peak—the demand for memory chips shows no sign of easing. Market strategists in Seoul point out that the current debate is not about near-term demand but about the sustainability of earnings and appropriate valuations. The offering’s reception will be closely watched for signals on whether the AI infrastructure trade can regain its footing after a period of rotation out of momentum-driven tech names. The final pricing and first day of trading on the Nasdaq will provide the next concrete read on that question.