SK Hynix Raises $26.5 Billion in Record US Listing, Opens 14% Above Offer Price

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix raised a record $26.5 billion in the largest-ever U.S. listing by a foreign company, with its shares opening 14% above the offer price on the Nasdaq. Fueled by soaring AI-driven demand for its dominant high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, the debut marks a major payoff for Chairman Chey Tae-won's long-term strategic bet on the once-niche technology.

SK Hynix Nasdaq listing

• ▪SK Hynix sold 177.9 million American Depositary Shares (ADRs) at $149 each on the Nasdaq exchange.
• ▪U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is in talks with SK Hynix and Samsung about building new factories in the U.S.
• ▪SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion in its U.S. market debut on July 10, 2026.
• ▪The company's ADRs opened at $170 per share, 14% above the offering price.
• ▪The offering was the largest-ever U.S. listing by a foreign company, surpassing Alibaba's $25 billion IPO in 2014.
• ▪Demand for the offering was reportedly more than seven times the number of available shares.

Chey's HBM chip strategy

• ▪SK Hynix is the world's largest producer of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips.
• ▪The acquisition was initially viewed as risky as Hynix trailed Samsung in market share and technology.
• ▪Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has referred to SK Hynix as the company's "largest memory partner."
• ▪SK Group, under Chairman Chey Tae-won, acquired the loss-making chipmaker Hynix in 2012.
• ▪Under Chey's leadership, SK Hynix focused on developing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which became critical for Nvidia's AI accelerators.

AI demand concerns

• ▪SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung stated that memory-chip shortages will likely persist beyond 2030.
• ▪Chey Tae-won acknowledged the current memory supply shortage is a "welcome problem" but said the "situation cannot last forever."
• ▪Despite strong demand, there are concerns about potential oversupply in the historically cyclical memory chip industry.
• ▪Chairman Chey Tae-won said customers are telling SK Hynix that doubling capacity in five years is "not enough."

Chey's personal controversies

• ▪In 2015, Chey Tae-won publicly admitted in a letter to a newspaper that he had a child with another woman while estranged from his wife.
• ▪Chey Tae-won is currently involved in an acrimonious divorce settlement lawsuit.
• ▪SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won was previously imprisoned for over two years for embezzling corporate funds, receiving a presidential pardon in 2015.

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