AI shovel-selling giant is about to hit Wall Street! Major banks are calling for a 20% increase, but those who truly understand the industry are rushing to another entry point

EX.IO Research

In June 2025, South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix announced its listing on Nasdaq at $166 per share, aiming to raise about $29.4 billion [1]. HSBC immediately predicted a 20% share price increase [2]. At first, this sounds like Wall Street sales pitch, but if you follow Pre-IPO equity investments, there’s a logic worth exploring deep behind: how does a company’s valuation anchor “migrate” from one market to another and create arbitrage opportunities? Going further: what kind of chemistry will occur when this “valuation migration” meets blockchain technology?

1.From ‘Korean Discounts’ to ‘Global Pricing’

For a long time, SK Hynix has carried the invisible shackles of the Korea Discount in the Korean market[7]—a combination of geopolitical risks, insufficient local liquidity, and corporate governance doubts, keeping its valuation consistently lower than its U.S. competitor Micron Technology. Ironically, while American investors were still hesitating about paying for this “Korean memory chip manufacturer,” SK Hynix had already pivoted: it was no longer just a memory chip manufacturer, but an indispensable “shovel seller” in the AI infrastructure wave.

In fiscal year 2025, SK Hynix’s annual operating revenue reached 97.15 trillion KRW, a year-on-year increase of 47%; Operating profit was 47.21 trillion KRW, doubling year-on-year [1]. Its HBM business accounted for 42% of total revenue, leading the sector with a 57% share of revenue[1][3][9]. HSBC’s recent investment report mentioning “getting a bargain” essentially implies that Nasdaq’s pricing mechanism will eventually correct the systemic undervaluation of the Korean market.

Indicators	Traditional DRAM/NAND business	HBM business
Pricing logic	Cyclical commodities	Long-term supply agreements are locked
Customer Structure	Price-sensitive diversified customers	Strategic binding with Nvidia and others
Valuation framework	P/E (Price-to-Earnings Ratio)	P/S or discounted long-term contract cash flows
Narrative labels	Memory chip manufacturer	Core supplier of AI infrastructure

2. The hidden pain of pre-IPO equity: liquidity dilemma and exit ceiling

SK Hynix is a publicly listed company, and while its cross-market listing is certainly exciting, for true pre-IPO investors, a more fundamental question always remains: how can primary market equity be efficiently exited?

In fact, traditional Pre-IPO investments face three structural challenges: liquidity exhaustion—exits heavily dependent on IPOs or mergers and acquisitions, and locking in a single investment for seven to ten years is not uncommon; Pricing black box — Private markets lack continuous price discovery mechanisms, and valuations often lag behind actual progress; High entry barriers—minimum subscription amounts of millions of dollars, complex qualified investor certification, and the maze of cross-border legal frameworks keep the vast majority of investors at bay.

SK Hynix’s case highlights the harshness of this dilemma: when a listed company still has the chance to break through valuation ceilings by issuing ADRs in the US, how can those star companies that have not yet gone public but are also at the core of the AI supply chain break through the dual constraints of liquidity and pricing in their equity?

3. RWA tokenization: breaking down the high walls of pre-IPO equity

The answer is taking shape on-chain. The maturity of RWA (Real-World Asset Tokenization) technology[9] is opening an unprecedented door for pre-IPO equity: real equity is held through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), minted on the blockchain at a 1:1 ratio, and investors can enjoy dividends, appreciation income, and ×24/7 on-chain liquidity.

This is not a distant future vision, but a business practice already in practice. In May 2026, Hong Kong’s licensed virtual asset trading platform EX. IO successfully completed the distribution of Asia’s first compliant SpaceX equity-linked depositary receipt (DR) tokenized product[4]. In this transaction, EX. IO acted as the exclusive licensed distributor for the products in Hong Kong, building an end-to-end compliance framework for institutional and professional investors through cross-border collaboration with Singapore-licensed platform DigiFT and compliant fintech company PrimeX, enabling them to establish economic exposure before SpaceX’s official listing.

This case proves that top private equity assets and blockchain liquidity are not mutually exclusive, and the market is using real data to prove this: according to RWA.xyz data, as of December 2025, the total global RWA tokenization issuance has surpassed $18 billion, an increase of more than eightfold year-on-year [5]; Boston Consulting Group further predicts that by 2030, the global RWA market will reach about $16 trillion[6].

From a global industry layout perspective, platforms from Jarsy, PreStocks, to Republic’s Mirror Tokens are all rushing into the pre-IPO equity tokenization track. While traditional PE/VC were still struggling with exit channels, on-chain Pre-IPO RWA products have provided another parallel channel.

4. SK Hynix’s “on-chain imagination” : the next frontier of Pre-IPO RWA

From another perspective, SK Hynix’s US listing is, to some extent, an example of “missing the timing for tokenization”—if its equity had been partially liquidated through RWA[9] before listing, early investors might not have had to wait years. But history has no ‘what ifs’; the market only has another chance.

The $29.4 billion raised by SK Hynix[1] will mainly be used to expand HBM capacity, a capital expenditure that is being passed on upstream to the supply chain. Advanced packaging, TSV technology, high-purity materials—every link has the potential to give rise to new unicorns. While these companies are still in the pre-IPO stage, RWA tokenization technology has already provided the possibility of “early mobility” of their equity, allowing investors to lay out the next breakthrough point in the AI supply chain within a compliant framework without waiting for lengthy IPO queues.

Looking deeper, SK Hynix has already secured more than two-thirds of HBM supply orders for Nvidia’s next-generation products[2], so its revenue is no longer a regularly fluctuating “product price function” but a “structural growth function” of AI computing power demand. For investors evaluating Pre-IPO RWA targets, identifying this “narrative turning point”—the critical moment when a company transitions from traditional business logic to emerging infrastructure logic—will be a key capability to enhance investment returns.

When recognition capability meets the liquidity of RWA tokenization, a brand-new investment paradigm is emerging: investors can build economic exposure through compliant tokenized products before a company goes public. As the growth narrative gains market recognition, tokens achieve price discovery in the secondary market, and when heading to IPO, they can choose to exchange for public shares or continue holding on-chain assets. In this swap process, compliance, security, and verifiability are especially important.

Conclusion

SK Hynix’s US listing is actually a profound demonstration of “valuation anchoring migration.” For forward-thinking investors, the lesson from this case goes beyond this: when a company’s valuation can “migrate” from KOSPI to Nasdaq, its equity can likewise migrate from the private market’s “black box” to the blockchain’s “transparent liquidity pool.” RWA tokenization technology is bridging this last mile. From SpaceX to other high-potential AI shovel sellers in the future, those top private equity assets once locked away behind high walls are now expanding into a broader investor base under the protection of compliant licenses and smart contracts. In the global AI arms race, HBM is no longer an option but a necessity; In this competition for rigid demand, the true winners are investors who can position early and exit flexibly.

Note:

[1] SK Hynix’s FY2025 financial report and Nasdaq IPO prospectus (including $166 per share, approximately $29.4 billion raised, operating revenue of 97.15 trillion KRW, operating profit of 47.21 trillion KRW, etc.).
[2] HSBC research report, June 2025 (including a 20% stock price increase forecast, “bargain” ratings, and information such as over two-thirds of HBM supply orders for Nvidia’s next-generation products).
[3] Counterpoint Research, 2025 HBM Market Share Statistics.
[4] EX. IOOfficial announcement and joint press release from DigiFT and PrimeX, May 2026 (Asia’s first compliant SpaceX equity-linked DR tokenized product distribution).
[5] RWA.xyz As of December 1, 2025, excluding stablecoins, the total global RWA tokenization issuance value has exceeded $18 billion.
[6] Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 2025 research report “Real-World Asset Tokenization” forecasts the global RWA market size to be about $16 trillion by 2030.
[7] “Korea Discount” is an unofficial term used in the capital market to refer to valuations of Korean companies due to systemic factors such as geopolitics, liquidity, and corporate governance.
[8] ADR (American Depositary Receipt) is a financial instrument issued by U.S. banks that represent the stock of foreign companies.
[9] HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) is the core component of current AI training and inference chips; RWA (Real World Assets) tokenization refers to the process of converting real-world assets into digital tokens through blockchain technology.

Disclaimer:

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