1 hour ago
22
SK hynix just pulled off something SpaceX couldn’t: a better first day on Wall Street.
The South Korean memory chip titan opened its American Depositary Receipts at $170 on Nasdaq on July 10, trading under the ticker SKHY. That represents an approximately 14% gain from the offering price, outpacing SpaceX’s 11% debut pop from its own record-shattering IPO in June 2026.
The numbers behind the debut
SK hynix’s offering raised between $26.5 billion and $28 billion, making it the largest-ever US debut by a foreign company. For context, that’s second only to SpaceX’s $85.7 billion IPO on the all-time US listings leaderboard. Ten ADRs represent one common share of SK hynix, a structure designed to make the stock more accessible to American retail and institutional investors alike.
The company’s market capitalization has swelled to roughly $1 trillion, fueled by a staggering 260%-plus rally year-to-date.
SpaceX shares, trading under the ticker SPCX, have since settled around the $148 to $150 range after their own debut.
Why AI is the rocket fuel
SK hynix is one of the world’s dominant manufacturers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM, the specialized chips that serve as the backbone of AI infrastructure.
The company’s stock price had already increased more than sevenfold over the preceding year before the US listing, driven almost entirely by the escalating global demand for AI-related hardware. The IPO proceeds are earmarked for ramping up chip production and building new fabrication facilities to keep pace with that demand.
For investors watching the competitive landscape, Samsung and Micron are both investing heavily in next-generation HBM technology, and any supply glut could compress margins quickly. The company’s stock has already priced in enormous growth expectations after its 260%-plus year-to-date rally.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
English (US) ·