SK Hynix made a strong debut on the Nasdaq, with its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) rising around 14% on the first day of trading. The shares opened at $170, well above their offer price of $149, after the South Korean chipmaker raised $26.5 billion through the sale of 177.9 million ADRs. The offering became the largest-ever US share sale by a foreign company, surpassing Alibaba’s record set in 2014. Investor demand was very strong, with the issue being more than 7 times oversubscribed, showing that global investors continue to back companies linked to the fast-growing AI industry.
Notably, the company is the global leader in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips, a premium category of memory that allows AI accelerators to process huge volumes of data at ultra-high speeds. HBM has become a critical component in graphics processors used for training and deploying large language models and other generative AI systems. SK Hynix supplies these advanced memory chips to major customers including Nvidia and AMD, placing it at the centre of the rapidly expanding AI hardware ecosystem.
Financially, the company has experienced significant growth over the past year. SK Hynix generated nearly $65 billion in revenue during 2025, while profits roughly doubled to about $28 billion, driven primarily by booming AI memory demand. The company’s market valuation has surged along with its earnings, with its shares gaining around 630% over the previous year, although they had retreated around 25% from recent record highs before the US listing as investors booked profits. Even after that correction, the company’s valuation remains among the highest in the global semiconductor industry.
The Nasdaq listing is also strategically significant because the United States has become SK Hynix’s most important market. Almost 69% of the company’s total revenue is generated from US customers. Management expects the listing to improve liquidity, broaden its international shareholder base and provide easier access to future capital.
Meanwhile, the proceeds from the offering will primarily be invested in expanding semiconductor manufacturing capacity, purchasing advanced chipmaking equipment, increasing production of next-generation HBM chips and supporting new fabrication facilities, including the company’s planned manufacturing site in Indiana, which will become its first production base in the United States.
The company’s growth is being driven by massive spending on AI infrastructure by global technology firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta. These companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new AI data centres that require large numbers of graphics processors and high-performance memory chips. Estimates suggest global investment in AI infrastructure could reach around $1.5 trillion by 2027. And as one of the leading suppliers of HBM chips, SK Hynix is expected to remain one of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend.