Asian technology companies looking to go after SK Hynix may find foreign investors more selective

By Kane Wu and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

HONG KONG/NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) – South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix may have had a $26.5 billion U.S. stock auction last week, but that has a lot to do with its most important role in the AI ​​chain and time.

Some Asian tech companies are expected to be cautious and look to tap foreign investors but may find favoring AI-related companies more selective, investors said.

Current levels of investor excitement about AI will be difficult to maintain as fears grow about the sustainability of AI-driven stock rallies, while chip stocks are also prone to volatility due to the industry’s historically boom-and-bust cyclical nature.

“SK Hynix is ​​a special case because it is large, liquid, AI-sensitive, and difficult for most American investors to own directly,” said Ophir Gottlieb, CEO of Capital Market Laboratories.

“I would call this era of SK as perfect as possible, but it is imperfect every day.”

Giuseppe Sette, founder of AI investment analytics platform Reflexivity, agrees, saying he doesn’t expect the floodgates to open wide.

SK Hynix, the leading developer of high-bandwidth ⁠memory (HBM) in Nvidia processors, “works because it connects a certain hole in the US portfolio – AI memory – with great enthusiasm … the listing of ‘me-and-me’ without a clear AI or lack angle should not consider receiving the same”, he said.

KIOXIA AND DAYONE

Continued investment in artificial intelligence spurred Asia’s tech sector to raise a record $84 billion for the year to July 10, more than triple the amount for the same period in 2025, LSEG data shows.

Of that, ADRs and global depositary receipts (GDRs) accounted for $29 billion, the highest amount for that category.

The US, in particular, offers a wider pool of investors, more capital and stronger governance, which often leads to higher rates than at home.

Companies known to be interested in a similar move to SK Hynix include Japanese memory maker Kioxia, which said it plans an ADR listing as soon as the April-June quarter of 2027. Its shares have grown nearly sixfold this year on demand for AI.

Singapore-based data center operator DayOne, while in talks with a potential buyer, is also planning a US-Singapore dual listing targeting a $20 billion valuation, sources familiar with the matter said.

DayOne did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There may be further succession for others, say bankers.

“The current technology fundraising cycle still has a large runway. We believe that the building blocks supporting AI investment will continue to support healthy capital markets activity over the next two to three years,” said James Wang, head of Asia ex-Japan ECM at Goldman Sachs.

Aaron Oh, UBS’s head of ECM for Asia Pacific, said he expects tech fundraising to continue “but at a faster pace, and I would expect Asian issuers to reach this cycle earlier than in the past.”

But even if demand is strong, companies may need to adjust expectations to balance.

Taiwan’s Unimicron Technology, a circuit board manufacturer, raised $1.4 billion last week in an oversubscribed global equity issue. The deal, however, was priced near the bottom of the marketable range and at a 5.3% discount to its closing price that day.

Investors are still eager for Asian technology releases, but because of the growing volatility they need to price appropriately and exercise greater discipline, said Manoj Jain, founder and CIO of Hong Kong-based hedge fund Maso Capital.

(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Saqib Ahmed in New York; Additional reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Edwina Gibbs)