SK Hynix heads to Nasdaq: Should Indian investors choose it over Micron? Which is the better long-term bet?
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- SK Hynix will list American depositary receipts on Nasdaq next month in a deal that could raise more than $29 billion, with proceeds funding new fabs in Korea including the Yongin campus and EUV equipment from ASML.
- SK Hynix commands roughly 58-60% of the global high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market and remains Nvidia's primary HBM supplier, making it the first to begin testing next-generation HBM4E chips.
- Micron posted fiscal Q3 2026 revenue of $41.46 billion, up 346% year-on-year, with gross margins crossing 81% for the first time; its entire 2026 HBM output is already sold out and the company can fulfil only half to two-thirds of customer demand.
- Memory chip stocks have surged on AI demand, with Micron up over 850% in the past year, SK Hynix up 900%, and Samsung up 500%.
- The HBM market is projected to grow from $35 billion in 2025 to nearly $100 billion by 2028, with analysts split on whether all three major players can grow simultaneously or whether 2027-2028 capacity additions could flood the market.
- Wright Research's Sonam Srivastava called SK Hynix the stronger near-term momentum trade off its Nasdaq debut while Micron is the steadier long-term hold thanks to its SCA structure locking in margins, noting investors can hold both.
- Qode Advisors' Rishabh Nahar prefers SK Hynix for its staying power in HBM, citing its Nvidia relationship and a valuation gap versus Micron that could narrow, while Vinit Shah of Truemind Capital argued the real shift is that the memory-and-AI theme just became accessible to Indian investors via US-dollar brokerage accounts.
Why it matters: Indian investors previously locked out of SK Hynix because it traded only on the Korean exchange can now buy both memory giants through a single US-dollar brokerage account, transforming the SK Hynix-versus-Micron question into a portfolio-completion decision. With the HBM market set to nearly triple to $100 billion by 2028 and 2026 supply already booked out across all three makers, today's competition talk is premature—but 2027-2028 capacity additions could change that calculus.
