SK Hynix Shares Jump 14% in Blockbuster Nasdaq Debut

SK Hynix's American Depositary Receipts opened at $170 each on Friday, approximately 14 percent above the offering price of $149, following the South Korean chipmaker's $26.5 billion listing on the Nasdaq.

The offering, the largest-ever U.S. debut by a foreign company and the second-largest U.S. share sale after SpaceX's record IPO, was more than seven times oversubscribed, highlighting strong investor appetite for direct exposure to the AI memory boom.

SK Hynix is the world's dominant manufacturer of high-bandwidth memory, the specialized chips essential for feeding data into advanced AI processors from customers including Nvidia.

CEO Kwak Noh-Jung told Reuters that AI's appetite for HBM is pushing the global memory market toward its tightest supply crunch, with demand potentially outstripping supply beyond 2030.

"This is more than a liquidity event. SK Hynix has been one of the most important companies in the world that most U.S. institutions could not easily own." – Dave Mazza, CEO of Roundhill Investments

Despite its 260 percent year-to-date rally and 630 percent surge over the past year, SK Hynix trades at approximately 5.8 times forward earnings compared to U.S. rival Micron at around 7 times, reflecting an accessibility discount for U.S. investors who previously had limited ways to buy Korean semiconductor stocks.

The Nasdaq listing is expected to help close this gap by broadening its global investor base and providing direct access to the world's deepest capital market.

The company has pledged to use proceeds to fund construction of a new semiconductor cluster in Yongin near Seoul and an advanced packaging facility in Cheongju, while also investing $4 billion in an Indiana facility under the U.S. CHIPS Act.

As the AI memory chips supply chain becomes increasingly central to the global AI build-out, SK Hynix's successful debut serves as a barometer for sustained investor confidence.

While chip stocks have recently lost momentum on concerns about overheated valuations, the offering's strong reception suggests that investor enthusiasm for leading AI infrastructure players remains intact, even as the market becomes more selective.