Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings is weighing plans to raise more than 13 trillion won through a listing of American depositary receipts in the United States.
Bloomberg reported on the 14th, citing people familiar with the matter, that Kioxia is considering raising at least $10 billion (about 13.5 trillion won) through an ADR listing it is pursuing for next year. The people said Kioxia has held discussions with investment banks including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase. They added that the ADR listing could open the way for Kioxia to be included in chip-focused stock indexes. Kioxia had earlier announced plans to issue ADRs around April to June of 2027 but has disclosed no further details.
Bloomberg described Kioxia's ADR push as a move that puts the company in line with other artificial intelligence-related firms seeking to tap strong investor demand. SK hynix raised $26.5 billion through an ADR offering in the United States in July, setting a record for the largest new share offering by a foreign company.
Some observers say weak second-half earnings at Kioxia and calls within the AI industry to slow the pace of development could weigh on the planned listing next year. Kioxia shares have plunged more than 54% from their peak over the past two months or so. The stock had surged more than eightfold in the first half of the year, driving gains in the Nikkei index, but analysts point to mounting concerns over slowing AI capital spending by large cloud service providers and falling prices as global memory makers race to expand output.
Arguments from major AI companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI that development should be slowed because of the technology's risks are another negative factor. As AI industry leaders called for safeguards on cutting-edge AI models, Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.8% in early trading on the 14th and an exchange-traded fund tracking major chip stocks dropped 4.7%.
