Near-ruin to riches: The story of chip giant SK hynix

Seoul: South Korean chipmaker SK hynix will begin trading on Wall Street this Friday, after what could be one of the world's biggest share sales as the firm takes advantage of the global AI boom.

Here is a run-down of how the South Korean company went from financial trouble to a $1 trillion tech star:

1940s-90s: Construction to crisis

The company was founded in 1949 under the name Gukdo Construction, but in 1983 began making microchips, phones and disk drives as Hyundai Electronics, an offshoot of the auto giant.

When the Asian financial crisis hit in the late 1990s, the International Monetary Fund spent billions to support economic reform in the worst-hit nations: Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.

Also read | India flags inconsistencies in US forced labour probe, seeks resolution via trade talks

As part of this, Hyundai took control of the chip operations of another conglomerate, LG Group, creating one of the world's largest semiconductor firms at the time.

It was not a happy marriage, however, and losses and debt quickly ballooned.

2001: New name

Painful restructuring ensued in an attempt to stay afloat, and in 2001 the company was renamed Hynix Semiconductor to reflect a renewed focus on chips.

"Hynix" is a combination of "high" and "electronics", the company said at the time.

Also read | Iran War Runtime: A day or two, a week, or a month? White House official says this

Later that year, the rebranded firm split from Hyundai, and after more cost-slashing and job cuts, finally began to turn a profit.

However, this also proved precarious because of the boom-and-bust industry for memory chips called DRAM, the company's specialty.

2012: SK Group buyout

Lacking enough cash to make the investments it needed to survive, Hynix needed rescuing and was bought by telecoms conglomerate SK Group in 2012.

Its name changed again to SK hynix, and its former engineer CEO dedicated resources to developing a more advanced type of chip, the then-unprofitable high-bandwidth memory (HBM).

Today, HBM is in huge global demand because it is used in artificial intelligence servers alongside other data-crunching semiconductors.

2020s: AI boom

As governments and tech titans plough hundreds of billions of dollars into building data centres that power chatbots and other AI tools, SK hynix has seen its value and profits soar.

Its market capitalisation recently surpassed $1 trillion -- a milestone also hit by HBM industry rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron.

The company's new riches have burnished its image domestically and overseas.

A picture of an SK hynix jacket went viral online as a symbol of wealth and success, with posts depicting it as a "golden ticket" to luxury boutiques or even better dating prospects.

The company says it has nearly 46,900 employees, around a third of them women.

2026: US listing

SK hynix is already traded on Seoul's Kospi index but on Friday it will begin trading on New York's Nasdaq index, after raising what is expected to be a whopping $28 billion in a share sale, which would be one of the world's largest.

It has not yet set its price for the listing.

"SK hynix noticed that its multiples on the Korean Exchange were lower than those of equivalent companies listed on the US exchanges," Jim Handy, semiconductor expert at Objective Analysis, told AFP.

So their US listing "is a smart move to correct that".

SK hynix has said the cash will be used to fund new chip factories, notably in a new cluster in South Korea's southwest.