SK Hynix started on July 10, 2026, with depositary receipts on Nasdaq. The company raised $26.5 billion – the largest IPO of a foreign company in the history of US stock exchanges. The stock rose about 13 percent at the start of trading, and the market value of the South Korean memory chip manufacturer exceeded one trillion dollars for the first time.
Demand exceeds supply by seven times
SK Hynix placed 177.9 million depositary receipts at $149 each, raising approximately 40 trillion won, as reported by TechCrunch. Investor demand exceeded the offered volume by more than seven times. The issue price was 2.7 percent above the three-day average of the common stock in Seoul – an unusual premium, since Korean technology stocks are traditionally traded at a discount on international exchanges. HSBC analysts estimate the appreciation potential of the US listing at up to twenty percent, as noted by the business outlet Fortune. With the proceeds, SK Hynix surpasses the previous record for an IPO of a foreign company in the US, held by the trading company Alibaba, which raised about $25 billion in 2014. Measured against all US IPOs, SK Hynix ranks second behind the aerospace company SpaceX, which raised about $86 billion in June 2026. From July 13, the stock switches from the temporary ticker SKHYV to the permanent ticker symbol SKHY.
Memory chips for AI accelerators drive the business
The basis of the interest is SK Hynix’s role as one of the key suppliers of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, a type of memory installed directly next to AI computing chips. The company controls significantly more than half of this market, according to market estimates. The exact share varies by source between 56 and 60 percent and is not independently verified. Alongside Samsung and Micron, SK Hynix is considered one of three relevant suppliers worldwide. Nvidia sources a large portion of its HBM needs from SK Hynix, whose technological lead is estimated at about a year. In fiscal year 2025, SK Hynix generated revenue of 97.1 trillion won, roughly $64.1 billion, at a net margin of 44 percent, according to figures from Yahoo Finance. CEO Kwak Noh-jung stated in a company announcement that HBM memory stands at the heart of the AI revolution, and that SK Hynix will be present wherever AI is used. Group Chairman Chey Tae-won added to Fortune that the company has announced plans to double production within five years, yet every customer keeps saying that is still not enough. The global HBM market is projected to grow from around $10 billion today to more than $50 billion by 2028. The broader memory chip shortage is expected to persist until at least 2030, according to industry observers.
Capital flows into new plants – also under US pressure
SK Hynix plans to invest the fresh IPO funds primarily in South Korea. Plans include a new manufacturing facility, an additional packaging plant, and modern EUV lithography systems for the next chip generation – machines that use extreme ultraviolet light for chip patterning. In the United States, the company already operates a plant. Since 2024, SK Hynix has been building a packaging facility for HBM memory in West Lafayette, Indiana, worth about $3.9 billion, its first plant of this kind outside Asia. At the same time, political pressure from Washington is growing to shift additional production to the United States. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is in talks with Samsung and SK Hynix about building further plants on American soil. Rival Micron had previously announced its own investments of about $250 billion in US factories. Whether SK Hynix plans additional US sites beyond the Indiana facility remains open. The current expansion plans from the IPO proceeds focus initially on the home base in South Korea, while the Indiana plant continues as an ongoing project.
It will be crucial whether SK Hynix yields to the pressure from Washington and builds additional factories in the US alongside the plants in South Korea and Indiana. Such a step would raise construction and labor costs but could shield the supply chain for Nvidia’s AI chips against geopolitical risks. Until that decision falls, the memory chip shortage is set to remain the central brake on the further build-out of AI data centers, according to market observers.
