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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