SK hynix decided to raise about 40 trillion won by listing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the U.S. Nasdaq market on the 10th (local time), and the Donald Trump administration immediately sent a message pressing for U.S. investment, drawing attention. SK hynix had originally planned to invest most of the dollar funds raised this time within Korea, but the Trump administration's pressure could be interpreted as a demand for foreign companies to change their existing plans. On top of this, Micron—which splits the memory chip market three ways alongside SK hynix and Samsung Electronics—increased its U.S. investment by as much as 75 trillion won, showing active alignment with the Trump administration. Analysts say President Trump's ambition to completely reshape the global semiconductor supply chain around the United States has once again come to the fore around the time of SK hynix's ADR listing.
Micron increases U.S. investment by another 75 trillion won... cooperates with Trump's plan to "bring 50% of world chip production to the U.S."
U.S. memory chip maker Micron announced it would raise its U.S. investment from the previous $200 billion (about 300 trillion won) to $250 billion (375 trillion won) within just two months. A day ahead of SK hynix's listing of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq market, it added momentum to the Trump administration's push to reshape semiconductor supremacy around the United States.
On the 9th (local time), Micron said it would expand its investment in U.S. chip production plants and technology to more than $250 billion by 2035, timed to a concrete-pouring ceremony for its fab (chip production plant) being built in Clay, New York. The nominal reason is to meet surging memory demand in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), but by specifically setting the location as the United States alone, it made clear its intention to align with the Trump administration's policy. Earlier, on May 22 this year, at a ceremony to expand its memory chip plant in Manassas, Virginia, Micron had announced it would raise its U.S. investment from $170 billion to $200 billion. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra emphasized, "As America marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, data and memory chips have become the cornerstone of the modern economy," adding, "To keep pace with this era, we are expanding our U.S. investment to more than $250 billion by 2035."
This investment combines the cost of the chip plant investment in Clay, New York, with the expansion costs of fabs in Idaho and Virginia. Micron further explained that it advanced the first concrete pouring at the New York fab by more than a quarter ahead of schedule. Micron expects this investment will support its goal of producing 40% of its DRAM within the United States while also creating more than 90,000 jobs.
Micron also announced it would invest up to an additional $3 billion (about 4.5 trillion won) to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain ecosystem. Of this, $500 million will be put toward expanding the Texas wafer manufacturing facility of Taiwanese company GlobalWafers through a 10-year supply contract.
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, as of the first quarter of this year Micron held a 22% share of the DRAM market and a 21% share of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), ranking third globally in both, behind Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Buoyed by news of Micron's increased investment, previously sluggish chip-related stocks rebounded across the board on the New York market that day, including Micron (4.54%), AMD (5.67%), ASML (2.01%), Intel (2.09%), Applied Materials (3.18%), Broadcom (3.20%), Lam Research (6.01%), ARM (9.20%), SanDisk (7.59%), and Marvell Technology (4.99%). The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also rose 3.06%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (0.27%), the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 (0.81%), and the Nasdaq Composite (1.30%) all strengthened.
Lutnick: "Samsung and SK hynix will feel envious and build plants in the U.S."... pressure with each Micron expansion
Above all, Micron's U.S. investment announcement drew attention in that it came just a day ahead of SK hynix's ADR listing on the 10th. This can be interpreted as a check on a competitor in the spotlight in the stock market. Moreover, at the concrete-pouring ceremony for the fab being built in Clay, New York, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick directly requested SK hynix's investment in the United States, heightening tensions further.
According to Bloomberg, Secretary Lutnick stressed at the event hosted by CEO Mehrotra that day, "President Trump has made clear that the place you should do business is right here in America, and the world is responding quickly," adding, "There has never been a better time to invest in America." Lutnick also said, "I want to bring competitors Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to the United States and have them build production facilities," adding, "Micron is leading the way, so its competitors will feel envious and ultimately have no choice but to follow." Without disclosing specifics, Lutnick also said discussions were underway with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Asked whether he intends to approve moves by Apple to add China's CXMT and YMTC as suppliers in response to surging chip prices, Lutnick avoided a direct answer.
Since December of last year, Micron has been building the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility in U.S. history in New York at a cost of $100 billion (about 150 trillion won). The New York chip facility is a massive complex covering about 5.67 square kilometers in site area alone, roughly twice the size of Seoul's Yeouido (about 2.9 square kilometers). Of the four total plants, the first will begin operations in 2030, the second in 2033, the third in 2038, and the fourth in 2045. When Micron announced the project plan in October 2022, it described the facility as "part of a strategy to increase U.S.-made cutting-edge DRAM production to 40% of global output over the next decade."
Secretary Lutnick also attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the plant on January 16 this year, reflecting the Trump administration's high level of interest. In a CNBC interview immediately after the groundbreaking, Lutnick referred to the terms of a trade agreement signed with Taiwan on January 15, saying, "Taiwan's investment totals $500 billion, combining direct investment and government guarantees for small and medium-sized enterprises." He added, "TSMC just purchased land near Arizona and will double its U.S. production," emphasizing, "The goal is to bring 40% of Taiwan's entire semiconductor supply chain and output to the United States, along with hundreds of companies." Lutnick also added, "If they don't build plants in the United States, tariffs are likely to be 100%, and that is a stick, not a carrot."
At the May 22 event to expand its memory chip plant in Virginia, Micron also said it would raise its total U.S. investment from $170 billion to $200 billion, including a $25 billion increase in its Idaho facility investment from $25 billion to $50 billion. It also raised its investment in research and development (R&D) and HBM packaging (back-end processing) from $45 billion to $50 billion. U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer attended that event, where he signaled, "There won't be across-the-board product tariffs on semiconductors right away, but they will be imposed at the appropriate time." Greer explained, "Imposing tariffs on semiconductors is really important," adding, "More important than protecting these facilities is that we implement semiconductor tariffs at the appropriate time and at the appropriate level." Each time Micron increased its U.S. investment, it continued issuing threatening remarks toward TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and SK hynix.
Message demanding investment a day before ADR listing... eyes on where the $26.5 billion goes
The United States' discrimination against foreign chip production facilities and all-out support for its own memory chip firms such as Micron is seen as stemming from the fact that the sector has recently emerged as a key arena of AI supply chain supremacy amid a severe supply shortage. At the May 22 inauguration event for Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair nominee Kevin Warsh, President Trump said, "Thanks to tariffs, by the time I leave office we will have 50% of chip manufacturing capacity," and "perhaps [BODY]
He also boasted that "it could be even more than that." In a Fox News interview on May 15, shortly after the U.S.-China summit, President Trump abruptly criticized, "Taiwan was able to prosper because previous presidents didn't impose tariffs on semiconductors," adding, "Taiwan has stolen our semiconductor industry for years." He continued, "I'd like all the chipmakers in Taiwan to come to the United States," saying, "By the time I finish my term, I hope 40 to 50% of the world's semiconductor industry will be in the U.S." Trump's term runs until January 20, 2029, and the next presidential election is on November 7, 2028. Two years and six months remain until he leaves office.
Micron's increased investment in the U.S. and Secretary Lutnick's remarks about attracting Korean companies' production facilities were interpreted in conjunction with SK hynix's ADR listing. In fact, on the same day, SK hynix finalized its ADR offering price at $149 per share and set its initial public offering (IPO) fundraising size at $26.5 billion (about 40 trillion won). The $149 price is about 2.9% higher than the ADR-equivalent price converted from SK hynix's common stock closing price of 2.186 million won (about $1,445) on the Kospi market on the 9th. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, one ADR corresponds to one-tenth of an SK hynix common share. SK hynix ADRs begin temporary trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker "SKHYV" on the 10th, then switch to regular trading as "SKHY" starting the 13th.
SK hynix's IPO fundraising size is the largest ever for a foreign company listed on the U.S. stock market, surpassing China's Alibaba, which raised $25 billion in 2014. Even including U.S. companies, it is the second-largest record, following SpaceX's $85.7 billion (about 130 trillion won) when it listed on the Nasdaq on the 12th of last month. Broadening to the entire global market, it is the third-largest, following the $29.4 billion that Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco raised in its domestic IPO in 2019. As Korean stock market common share prices recently declined, the total amount came in somewhat lower than the $29 billion (about 45 trillion won) Wall Street had originally expected. SK hynix stressed, "This IPO was the only one to also achieve premium pricing."
SK hynix's IPO success was already somewhat foreseen at the demand forecasting stage. According to Bloomberg on the 8th, the SK hynix ADR demand forecast that closed that day drew subscriptions exceeding seven times the offering volume. That meant orders amounting to $171.5 billion (about 260 trillion won) on a subscription basis flooded in. Among them, Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management, and Situational Awareness reportedly expressed intentions to invest up to $7 billion. On the 9th, this news, together with Micron's decision to increase U.S. investment, served as a boost that drove up the share prices of semiconductor-related stocks on the New York Stock Exchange.
Regarding the SK hynix listing, Swiss investment bank UBS sparked controversy on the 7th by recommending to investors, "Buy the ADR and sell the Korean stock." The reason was that ADR prices were likely to command a premium due to constraints on exchanging them with Korean shares. In an investor note, UBS argued, "Buying ADRs from day one and short-selling Korean shares is an all-too-obvious choice."
Despite U.S. pressure, SK hynix still maintains its plan to use the ADR-raised funds as capital for facility investment, including its first factory at the Yongin semiconductor cluster in Gyeonggi Province. In this respect, the market is expected to pay attention to whether the Trump administration will apply additional investment pressure even after the listing. Expanding production facilities in the U.S., which has many unfavorable conditions for memory chip production—such as work culture, labor costs, and raw material prices—poses an enormous burden even for a company as formidable as SK hynix.
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