SK Hynix debuts on Wall Street with record $26.5 billion listing

SK Hynix surged onto Wall Street with a $26.5 billion debut that made the South Korean memory-chip maker the biggest foreign company ever to list in the United States. The company priced 177.9 million American depositary receipts at $149 each, then opened at $170 on Nasdaq as investors rushed to gain exposure to one of the most critical suppliers in the AI buildout.

The deal easily cleared the previous record set by Alibaba’s 2014 U.S. debut and was more than seven times oversubscribed. Demand came from long-only funds, tech funds, sovereign wealth funds and Asia-focused investors, a sign that the AI trade is widening beyond the best-known chip designers and into the companies that control the memory supply underpinning the boom.

That shift has turned SK Hynix into a chokepoint in the AI supply chain. The company is a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems, including chips for Nvidia, and its rise has been extraordinary. One recent report put its stock up more than sevenfold over the previous year, while another said shares had climbed about 223% year to date in Korea before the U.S. listing. In May, SK Hynix briefly became South Korea’s most valuable company after reaching a $1 trillion valuation.

Chairman Chey Tae-won framed the U.S. listing as a response to relentless demand, saying demand for AI memory chips has outpaced the company’s expansion plans. He also said the new market access would provide fresh momentum and help recruit talent. The company has said the listing could help fund expansion, including new manufacturing capacity in South Korea and possible future investment in U.S. production, as Asian chipmakers face mounting pressure to build more fabs in America.

The debut has also become a marker of how far the market’s AI enthusiasm has spread. SK Hynix’s valuation and listing carry a different message than the latest splashy software or chip-design debut: the money is not only chasing the brands at the center of the boom, but also the less visible suppliers that determine whether the industry can actually meet demand.