Kioxia considers $10B U.S. ADR listing, Bloomberg reports

Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings is considering raising at least $10 billion through a listing of American depositary receipts in the United States, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.reuters+1

The move would make Kioxia one of the latest Asian semiconductor companies to seek deeper access to U.S. capital markets amid sustained investor appetite for chip stocks tied to artificial intelligence.

Talks With Major Banks

Kioxia has been in discussions with Bank of America ↘ 1.31%, Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ↘ 2.94%, and JPMorgan Chase ↘ 1.25% about an offering that could take place next year, according to Bloomberg's report. The Tokyo-based company is seeking greater U.S. liquidity after repurchasing billions of dollars' worth of its own shares in Japan, which shrank the pool of stock available to trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.finimize+2

Selling ADRs could also make Kioxia eligible for inclusion in a semiconductor-focused stock index, a move that would open the door to automatic buying by passive funds that track such benchmarks. The considerations remain preliminary, Bloomberg reported, and details including the offering size and bank lineup may change.bloomberg+2

Kioxia had announced in May that it was preparing to list ADRs to broaden its investor base, with a timeline around April to June 2027, but had not disclosed further specifics until now.reuters+1

A Challenging Backdrop

The potential listing comes as Asian chip firms increasingly look to tap U.S. investors. SK hynix ↘ 7.00% raised $26.5 billion through a U.S. ADR offering in July, setting a record for the largest new share offering by a foreign company, according to Seoul Economic Daily.sedaily

Yet the environment has grown more uncertain. Kioxia's shares have fallen more than 54% from their peak over the past two months after surging eightfold in the first half of the year. Analysts point to concerns over slowing AI capital spending by cloud providers and falling memory prices as global makers race to expand output.sedaily

Adding to the headwinds, CEOs of leading AI companies including Anthropic and OpenAI called over the weekend for slowing the pace of frontier AI development, citing safety risks. On Monday, Nasdaq 100 futures fell in early trading, and storage-related stocks declined sharply in pre-market activity.news.futunn+1

Kioxia, its bankers, and Reuters all declined to comment or could not immediately be reached.reuters