The memory chipmaker said it would buy back and cancel as many as 24 million treasury shares between Aug. 20 and Nov. 19, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. Its shares pared losses in post-market trading after falling 9.8% in regular trading.
SK Hynix’s buyback plan follows the $26.5 billion it raised just a month ago in a US listing, reflecting the enormous amounts of capital that chased a global AI boom. But the firm, a key supplier of high‑bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia Corp., joined a recent selloff over worries that spending on AI hardware could be fleeting.
“The size of this buyback is a strong signal from SK Hynix and delivers something investors have been calling for, putting its growing cash pile to work and increasing shareholder returns,” said Josh Gilbert, an analyst at Etoro.
Meanwhile, the Korean markets are under pressure. South Korea led a selloff in Asian chip stocks, as rising bond yields exacerbated worry over the large sums of cash being shelled out by Big Tech.
The Korean benchmark Kospi tumbled as much as 6.8% Wednesday before paring the decline, with Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. each slumping more than 8%.
A Bloomberg gauge of Asian semiconductor names fell 3.2%. Kioxia Holdings Corp. dropped as much as 11%, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. dipped nearly 2%.Read Also: Sugar stocks Dhampur, Dwarikesh, Bajaj Hindusthan gain up to 13% on Wednesday; Here’s why
