SK Hynix Sets New Record with $26.5B US IPO Debut on Nasdaq
South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix made history on Friday, July 10, 2026. The company raised a staggering $26.5 billion in its Wall Street debut. This is the largest-ever US listing by a foreign company, surpassing Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO in 2014. The chipmaker priced 177.9 million American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) at $149 each. It began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker SKHYV, surging roughly 13–14% on its first day to close near $168.
The demand for the offering was extraordinary. It was oversubscribed seven times over, according to Reuters. This underscores investors’ insatiable appetite for AI-driven semiconductor plays. SK Hynix is a key supplier to Nvidia, commanding a 56.4% share of the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market. This market is in critical shortage globally due to the AI infrastructure boom. The company reported staggering revenue growth of 198% year-over-year in Q1 2026. Its South Korea-listed stock has soared over 174% in the past six months.
This blockbuster listing is widely seen as the crown jewel of what is shaping up to be the biggest IPO year in history. This follows SpaceX’s record-breaking $75 billion debut in June. SK Hynix and Samsung have also pledged to invest $518 billion in two new chipmaking facilities. This is part of South Korea’s national AI investment push. SK Hynix will begin trading under its permanent Nasdaq ticker SKHY starting Monday, July 13.
Source: Al Jazeera — SK Hynix raises $26.5bn in record-breaking US IPO