SK Hynix Raises $26.5 Billion in Record Nasdaq IPO on AI Memory Chip Demand

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix debuted on the Nasdaq on July 10, 2026, raising $26.5 billion in the largest-ever U.S. IPO by a foreign company, surpassing Alibaba's $25 billion offering in 2014.

The company sold 177.9 million American Depositary Shares at $149 each under the ticker symbol SKHY. The offering was oversubscribed more than seven times, attracting approximately $171 billion in orders from institutional investors including Baillie Gifford and Coatue Management.

The record-breaking debut was driven by surging demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, chips, which are essential components in Nvidia's AI accelerators and other artificial intelligence systems. SK Hynix holds a significant share of the global HBM market and reported net income of 40.34 trillion won, about $26.6 billion, in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

The company plans to use the proceeds to fund aggressive expansion of its manufacturing capacity. Key investments include the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in South Korea, expansion of its Cheongju facility for advanced chip packaging, and a $4 billion packaging plant in Indiana, the company's first U.S.-based facility.

SK Hynix also plans to purchase high-numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography machines from ASML to enable sub-3-nanometer chip production, a capability that will be critical for next-generation AI hardware.

The Nasdaq listing is designed to reduce what analysts call the "Korea discount," a phenomenon where South Korean companies have historically traded at lower valuations than comparable firms listed in the United States. By trading on the Nasdaq, SK Hynix gains access to deeper pools of U.S. capital.

Nvidia reclaimed a market capitalization exceeding $5 trillion on July 10, the same day as the SK Hynix debut, underscoring the continued strength of the AI hardware sector.