SK Hynix raises $26.5 billion before Nasdaq debut
The South Korean chipmaker’s ADS sale set a US record for a foreign listing as AI demand drew heavy investor interest.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
South Korea’s SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion before its Nasdaq debut, setting a record for a foreign company listing in the United States, Al Jazeera reported. The sale gives global investors a larger direct route into a major supplier of memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems.
SK Hynix said Friday it sold 177.9 million American depositary shares at $149 each before listing on the New York-based Nasdaq exchange, according to Al Jazeera. American depositary shares are dollar-denominated shares in foreign companies that trade on US markets.
The company’s ADS sale is equal to 18 million ordinary shares, Al Jazeera reported. The offering surpassed Alibaba’s $25 billion US debut in 2014 and ranks as the world’s second-largest listing after SpaceX’s $85.7 billion Nasdaq listing in June, according to the report.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that demand exceeded the available shares by more than seven times. Dilin Wu, a research strategist at Pepperstone in Melbourne, told Al Jazeera that investor demand beat “even the most optimistic expectations.”
Wu said orders reached about $171 billion for a deal valued in the $24 billion to $28 billion range, even as semiconductor shares were selling off and South Korea’s Kospi index was in a circuit-breaker week. He told Al Jazeera the pricing reflected investor confidence in the AI memory cycle and in SK Hynix’s earnings.
SK Hynix has benefited from demand for advanced memory chips, with net income reaching 40.34 trillion won, or $26.6 billion, in the first quarter of 2026, Al Jazeera reported. Its South Korea-listed shares have climbed about 229 percent since the start of the year.
In May, SK Hynix joined the group of companies valued at at least $1 trillion, alongside rival chipmakers Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, according to Al Jazeera. SK Hynix and Samsung also joined a $1 trillion AI investment initiative announced late last month by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, pledging with suppliers to invest $518 billion in two chipmaking facilities.
SK Hynix’s South Korea-listed shares were up about 0.8 percent at 06:30 GMT on Friday, Al Jazeera reported. Cameron Robertson, a portfolio manager at Platinum Asset Management in Sydney, told Al Jazeera that global capital was chasing AI-related opportunities, with investor behavior showing both “genuine confidence and speculative activity.”
Alex Holmes, regional director for Asia Pacific at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera that investors have shifted toward semiconductor supply-chain companies as they question whether large AI spending plans at technology groups such as Amazon and Microsoft can last. Morgan Stanley said the “Magnificent Seven” stocks — Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Tesla — traded this week at their lowest levels in a decade relative to the S&P 500, according to Al Jazeera.
South Korea’s wider stock market has risen more than 70 percent so far in 2026, lifted by the AI trade, Al Jazeera reported. Robertson told Al Jazeera that the rally has been accompanied by rising margin lending, more interest in single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds and stronger retail participation.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.