SK Group Chairman Joins ADR Listing Event; Samsung Reportedly Seeks Big Tech Foundry Orders at Sun Valley

　　SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is attending SK hynix’s American Depositary Receipt (ADR) listing ceremony on Nasdaq in New York on the morning of July 10 local time. According to ETNews, in addition to meeting with global investors, Chey is expected to hold discussions with major customers on expanding AI memory cooperation. The report also says he may meet with executives from leading tech companies, including NVIDIA and Tesla, during his U.S. visit.

　　As the report notes, Chey’s attendance at the event is seen as an effort to showcase SK hynix’s AI memory competitiveness and long-term growth potential to global investors. The report adds that the ADR listing was intended to help the company achieve a valuation in global capital markets that better reflects its role as a key enabler of AI infrastructure expansion.

　　The ADR offering is valued at approximately KRW 43 trillion and involves the issuance of up to 17.79 million new shares, representing about 2.5% of the company’s total outstanding shares. The report says the proceeds will be used to finance construction of the first fab at the Yongin semiconductor cluster, the Cheongju P&T7 advanced packaging fab, and the purchase of manufacturing equipment, including extreme ultraviolet (EUV) scanners.

　　Samsung Courts Big Tech at Sun Valley

　　Samsung executives are also in the U.S., where Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee has attended the Sun Valley Conference alongside Han Jin-man, President and Head of the Foundry Business. According to ZDNet, the move reflects Samsung’s push to secure AI semiconductor orders from major technology companies. Lee is accompanied this year by Han Jin-man, who was appointed head of Samsung’s foundry business late last year. The report says Han is expected to support discussions on securing foundry orders from major tech companies during the conference.

　　Against this backdrop, attention has turned to potential foundry customers. According to The Korea Herald, one of the most closely watched meetings is with Apple executives, including CEO Tim Cook, incoming CEO John Turnus, and Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue. The report says Samsung Foundry, which secured an order for iPhone image sensor chips last August, is aiming to join Apple’s application processor (AP) supply chain, currently served by TSMC.

　　Beyond Apple, The Korea Herald also notes that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are attending the conference. Both companies are developing in-house AI chips to compete with NVIDIA, already source High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) from Samsung Electronics, and are viewed as potential Samsung Foundry customers.