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Historic SK Hynix IPO
SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chip maker, raised $26.5 billion in its U.S. market debut after selling 177.9 million American depositary shares at $149 each.
“The newly minted stock ended the day Friday trading at $168 per share”
The IPO began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, July 10, under the temporary ticker SKHYV, and regular trading under the permanent ticker SKHY begins Monday, July 13.
Morningstar said the newly minted stock ended the day Friday trading at $168 per share, a roughly 12.8% increase from the IPO price.
CNBC reported SK Hynix rose 13% in its first day of trading on Nasdaq, closing at $168.01, as U.S. investors bought into the company’s AI-driven memory demand.
In the same coverage, SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won told CNBC that "demand is enormous" as customers and partners expected more chips even after the company announced it would double capacity within five years.
Pricing, demand, and tickers
Multiple outlets tied the offering’s structure to its pricing, with Al Jazeera saying SK Hynix sold 177.9 million American depositary shares at $149 each ahead of its Wall Street debut on the Nasdaq.
Al Jazeera also reported that Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said the listing was more than seven times oversubscribed, and it quoted Pepperstone research strategist Dilin Wu saying the market reception exceeded "even the most optimistic expectations".
TechCrunch said the stock opened at 14% over its IPO price and that it priced its U.S. shares at a 2.7% premium to its own three-day average back home in Seoul.
Investopedia described the ADS pricing as setting the company up to raise more than $26 billion and said the listing would test Wall Street’s appetite for memory stocks after turbulence in recent weeks.
In that context, Morningstar quoted Renaissance Capital director of research Nick Einhorn saying the IPO was priced at a "3% premium" to the as-converted price in Korea and called the result a success for capital raised and investor returns.
What it means next
Beyond the first-day trading, outlets framed the stakes around AI infrastructure and the memory cycle, with CNBC describing SK Hynix’s high-performance memory as used in AI chips from Nvidia and quoting Chey Tae-won saying "The demand is enormous, exponentially".
“"The demand is enormous, exponentially, so I don't really see"”
Investopedia said SK Hynix’s U.S. listing would be a test of investor appetite for memory stocks after a torrid rally, noting that SK Hynix shares have risen well above 200% in 2026 and that Samsung has more than doubled.
For the capital plan, TechCrunch said the money raised would go to three places: a new fab in South Korea, a new packaging facility in that country, and EUV scanners, the machines that make next-generation chips possible.
Al Jazeera reported SK Hynix’s net income hit 40.34 trillion won ($26.6bn) in the first quarter of 2026 and said SK Hynix and Samsung signed on to a $1 trillion AI investment initiative announced by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung late last month.
In the same broader picture of expansion and competition, CNBC said SK Hynix announced a $4 billion advanced packaging plant in Indiana and that a cluster of chip fabrication plants in Yongin would cost $390 billion, while it also warned that memory is cyclical and prone to oversupply and price collapses.