Global funds embrace "Silicon inflation": SK Hynix plans to raise nearly $30 billion through a US IPO, teaming up with Micron to explode performance and verify that the "super cycle of storage" is far from over.

Despite a major sell-off this week due to overcrowded positions and over-leveraging in AI computing-related tech stocks, which caused a significant blow to the global chip sector, SK Hynix Inc., one of the top three global memory chip manufacturers based in South Korea and also the market leader in the HBM field, is seeking to raise 45.45 trillion Korean won (294 billion US dollars) through an initial public offering on the US stock market. This move is aimed at capitalizing on the strong demand from global investors for the stocks of storage chip super giants, whose prices have skyrocketed in recent years and are extremely scarce. SK Hynix's plans to list in the US have attracted a rush of funds, coupled with the strong performance and outlook of the US storage chip giant Micron. This highlights the fact that the super cycle of storage chips is far from over. The issuance of American Depositary Receipts (ADR) in the US stock market comes after SK Hynix's stock in the Seoul market surged by around 850% in the past 12 months, pushing the company's market value to over 1 trillion US dollars, surpassing South Korea's long-time leading company Samsung Electronics. With increasing crowded positions and leveraging strategies focusing on the semiconductor companies related to AI computing power infrastructure, investors' sentiment has been fluctuating in recent times, with sharp bi-directional fluctuations within the overall uptrend this year. The US listing plan also marks a milestone in SK Hynix's exceptional rise. After becoming the preferred HBM supplier for NVIDIA Corporation, the dominant leader in global AI chip monopolies, SK Hynix has become the largest supplier of HBM market share in high-bandwidth memory component systems. This has temporarily placed it ahead of its longtime Korean rival Samsung Electronics in terms of market value and overall DRAM market share. SK Hynix's plan to raise around $294 billion through a US listing, combined with Micron's strong performance and guidance announcements, significantly strengthens a firm market judgment on an optimistic cycle, indicating that the so-called "storage super cycle" is far from over and has evolved from the traditional PC/smartphone cycle to a structural scarcity super cycle dominated by AI data centers. Micron's latest financial data for the third fiscal quarter ending May 31st show revenue growth of about 346% to $41.46 billion, reflecting the ongoing surge in demand for storage chips driven by AI computing infrastructure. This has alleviated market doubts regarding AI-related storage demand. The robust performance of data centers and cloud business has also been a significant factor in responding to market uncertainties. Micron's core data center revenue of $11.52 billion in the third quarter was 7.5 times higher than a year ago and 1.7 times higher than market expectations, while cloud storage chip business revenue of $13.77 billion was approximately four times higher than a year ago and nearly 30% higher than analysts' expectations. The combined revenue for both...