By Adam Clark

There's a hot company with a nearly $1 trillion valuation and a great artificial-intelligence story coming to the U.S. market, but it's not Elon Musk's SpaceX or ChatGPT-developer OpenAI.

For all the hype over those two IPOs, South Korea's SK Hynix could be the hottest new AI story for American investors in the coming weeks.

The memory-chip maker has already filed an application to list American depositary receipts with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the timing isn't confirmed, reports point to a June or July timeframe.

The size and pricing of the listing haven't been decided, but SK Hynix could raise up to $10 billion according to local Korean media reports. The company currently has a market valuation of just under $800 billion, according to FactSet, with shares having nearly tripled this year so far through Wednesday's close.

SK Hynix shares rose 11% on Wednesday in local Korean trading.

Up until now U.S. investors have primarily had Micron Technology as the way to play the memory-chip boom, driven by the need for high-bandwidth memory as components in artificial-intelligence chips.

SK Hynix is cheaper than Micron, trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of around 6.1 times, according to FactSet. By comparison, Micron trades at a forward multiple of around 8.3 times.

Investing in SK Hynix's ADRs will bring currency and political risks. So far SK Hynix and its domestic peer Samsung Electronics have avoided facing U.S. tariffs on imported chips but the Trump administration has repeatedly suggested it could impose levies on overseas production unless chip makers ramp up U.S. investment.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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May 21, 2026 08:03 ET (12:03 GMT)

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