SK Hynix expects the combined total of its disclosed facility investment plans to exceed 100 trillion won. With that in mind, the company has officially set securing 100 trillion won in net cash as a goal. It is also pursuing a U.S. stock market listing to raise funds. A race for speed, riding a surge in HBM demand, is underway.

SK Hynix has officially begun procedures to list American depositary receipts (ADRs) in the United States. It confidentially submitted a Form F-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 24, and CEO Noh-jung Kwak (곽노정) said at a shareholders' meeting on March 25 that it aims to list in the second half of this year. The funds raised are set to be used for memory facility investment.

Behind the ADR push is rapidly expanding investment demand. SK Hynix recently approved a series of projects, including the M15X front-end fab in Cheongju (20 trillion won), the P&T7 back-end fab (19 trillion won), the first-phase fab in the Yongin semiconductor cluster (31 trillion won), and an ASML EUV equipment contract (about 12 trillion won). The disclosed figures alone total 82 trillion won.

Adding 10 to 15 trillion won cited for the ADR offering, plus equipment spending separately stated in the Yongin fab disclosure and R&D investment, brings the total to more than 100 trillion won. If the company's outlook that the HBM market will grow 33 percent a year on average through 2030 is taken into account, the investment scale could rise further.

Kwak's presentation of securing more than 100 trillion won in net cash as a mid- to long-term financial goal at the shareholders' meeting the same day was in the same context. Net cash stood at 12.7 trillion won at the end of last year, a shift within a year from net debt of 8.5 trillion won at the end of 2024. The debt-to-equity ratio also fell to 46 percent from 64 percent over the same period.

But the company judges current cash levels to be insufficient given the amount of investment it still has to execute. "Even if a downturn like in the past comes, we must be able to invest steadily and continue growth," Kwak said. "Sufficient cash is a strategic asset for future growth and also excellent insurance to prepare for market uncertainty," he said.

It is also bringing forward its capacity expansion schedule. The first cleanroom opening for the first-phase Yongin fab was shortened from May 2027 to February. M15X opened its cleanroom in October 2025, earlier than originally planned. P&T7 is set to break ground in April 2026, with completion targeted for the end of 2027. The reason for the rush is clear. Last year's HBM sales more than doubled from a year earlier, and fourth-quarter DRAM average selling prices jumped in the mid-20 percent range quarter-on-quarter while NAND average selling prices surged in the low-30 percent range. "As AI infrastructure and on-device adoption expand, it will lead to increasing demand not only for HBM but also for AI DRAM and AI NAND," Kwak said.

◆ Amid debate over new share issuance, "size and method undecided"

As concerns emerged that the 100 trillion won goal could reduce shareholder returns, Kwak replied it was "a matter of order." His logic is that once cash is sufficiently built up first, larger dividends and share cancellations become possible later. "At last year's shareholders' meeting the stock price was 207,000 won, and this year it is over 1 million won," Kwak said. "What mattered most was timely investment and technology development," he stressed. The company in fact carried out shareholder returns totaling the 14 trillion won range last year, including a 1,500 won per-share special dividend and the cancellation of treasury shares worth about 12.24 trillion won.

Still, shareholder opposition to issuing new shares is a variable. The Korea Corporate Governance Forum said it opposed issuing new shares that would dilute existing shareholders when free cash flow is overflowing, and it suggested an alternative of buying back shares and then listing in the United States.

The size and method of the ADR issuance have not yet been decided, and Kwak reiterated that at the shareholders' meeting. Woo-hyun Kim (김우현), SK Hynix CFO, earlier said on a conference call that 2026 capital expenditure is expected to increase significantly from last year. The company maintains that it cannot slow the pace of investment even amid controversy over the fundraising method.