MarketsJul 10, 2026
SK Hynix Pulls Off the Largest Foreign US Listing on Record
Memory Capital
Rhea Lobo
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SK Hynix opened at $170 on the Nasdaq on July 10, raising $26.5B through an American depositary receipt offering priced at $149 per share.
The deal was seven times oversubscribed before allocations closed, making it the largest foreign US listing on record.
SK Hynix's valuation has risen more than sevenfold over the past year as demand for AI infrastructure drove a shortage in computer memory and sent prices higher.
The company is the leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the specialized chip stacks used inside Nvidia AI processors.
"The demand is enormous, exponentially, so I don't really see" signs that HBM demand is shrinking, SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won told CNBC on Friday.
Tae-won told CNBC that AI agents and robots need a lot of memory chips, and that customers told him even a plan to double capacity within five years still wasn't enough. The $26.5B raised will fund new factories, equipment, and a $4B advanced packaging plant in Indiana.
The debut landed on a day when the broader Nasdaq story was more complicated.
The spring's ten best-performing Nasdaq-100 members, a group that includes Sandisk, Astera Labs, Micron, Intel, Marvell, Seagate, Nebius, AMD, Western Digital, and Arm, had surged more than 200% on a median basis from late March through late June.
Since June 25, that same group is down roughly 12%, while the ten weakest spring performers are up about 8% over the same stretch.
The PHLX Semiconductor Index hit its lowest level in nearly a month this week, sitting 16% below its mid-June highs after posting its best quarter ever in Q2.
Apple and Nvidia have held up better than the broader chip group, helping the Nasdaq-100 stay roughly flat even as memory stocks entered bear market territory. The held a key support line this week and recovered nearly 10% from Tuesday's low.
A separate warning sign is flashing in the background. The Nasdaq Composite triggered the Hindenburg omen 11 times in a single month, the first time that's happened on record.
The indicator flags market stress when an unusually high number of stocks hit new 52-week highs and new lows simultaneously. Analysts note the signal has produced false alarms in this bull market, and one strategist described a likely sideways summer rather than a correction.
For SK Hynix, the institutional demand behind its record raise suggests the AI memory trade still has believers, even as the stocks that led it higher this spring are taking a breather.
