Asia stocks rise ahead of SK Hynix’s blockbuster Nasdaq debut

Asian chip stocks rose sharply on Friday as SK Hynix began trading on Nasdaq, a $26.5 billion debut that tested whether investors still believe the AI boom can justify soaring semiconductor valuations. The South Korean memory maker priced its American depositary receipts at $149 each, turning the listing into the largest-ever foreign company debut on a U.S. exchange.

Demand for the deal was fierce. The offering was more than seven times oversubscribed, and about 1,000 institutional investors joined the roadshow. Ten ADRs represent one common share, and the pricing came at a 2.7% premium to SK Hynix’s average Seoul share price over the previous three trading days, signaling that global buyers were willing to pay up for a direct stake in a critical part of the AI supply chain.

SK Hynix has become one of the clearest winners of the data-center spending surge. The company’s market value hovered around $1 trillion, and it is a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in Nvidia AI chips. Analysts expect SK Hynix to capture more than half of the HBM market this year, a dominant position that helps explain why the stock has remained about 650% higher than a year ago even after falling roughly a quarter from a record high hit two weeks earlier.

The Nasdaq debut also underscored how much capital is still chasing semiconductor exposure despite renewed geopolitical strains and recent worries about slower AI spending. Asian markets were firm even as broader risk sentiment was pressured by tensions involving Iran and higher oil prices, showing that investors continue to prefer companies tied to advanced chips over the wider market.

The listing fits a larger shift in capital allocation across the industry. SK Hynix has been building a $4 billion production facility in Indiana and expanding around its Solidigm business in California, deepening its U.S. footprint as South Korea’s chip champions compete for global funding and strategic leverage. For investors, the message was clear: AI memory remains one of the market’s most crowded trades, but the scale of the rally is now forcing a harder question about how much of the future demand is already in the price.