SK Hynix’s $26.5B Nasdaq Coup Meets Home-Market Jitters as AI Chip Cycle Divides Opinion
Published on 07/10/2026 at 16:33 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
SK Hynix has landed on Wall Street with a bang, raising $26.5 billion in the largest-ever US initial public offering by a foreign company. But back home in Seoul, the mood is more tentative. Shares in the South Korean memory-chip giant slipped 0.27% on Friday to 2,180,000 won, leaving them down 10.1% on the week even as the company’s American Depositary Receipts began trading under the temporary ticker SKHYV. The permanent symbol SKHY will kick in on Monday.
The 177.9 million ADRs priced at $149 each, roughly 2.7% above the stock’s recent average in Seoul. Demand outstripped supply by more than seven times, with institutional heavyweights including Baillie Gifford and Coatue Management reportedly seeking allocations worth up to $7 billion combined. The listing directly targets the so-called Korea discount — the persistent valuation gap between Seoul-listed equities and comparable US peers. Before the move, SK Hynix traded at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of around 5.5–6.2, versus Micron Technology’s 6.6–7. Wall Street access is meant to close that gap.
The fresh capital will flow straight into capacity expansion. SK Hynix dominates the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market — the specialised DRAM used in Nvidia’s AI accelerators — with an estimated 58% share. Production is ramping for 12-layer HBM3E chips, seen as essential for next-generation AI processors. Two flagship projects get priority funding: the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in South Korea and a new $4 billion advanced packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana, slated for completion in 2028. The US facility is expected to draw up to $458 million in CHIPS Act subsidies and as much as $570 million in government loans. Meanwhile, the company’s Solidigm storage business near Sacramento, California, offers a second leg beyond classic memory chips.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
Not everyone is uncorking the champagne. CNBC’s Jim Cramer called SK Hynix an attractive AI bet but cautioned investors to keep positions small given the stock’s wild swings. Daniel Newman, CEO of the Futurum Group, delivered a sharper warning: memory-chip cycles, he noted, always run hot before “crashing hard.” If AI demand stays elevated, however, memory stocks could remain bargains, he added. The caution reflects the stock’s extreme volatility — a 30-day annualised reading of 114.7% suggests a nerve-shredding ride.
On the Seoul exchange, the picture is more nuanced still. Since the start of 2026, SK Hynix shares have surged 222%, but they remain 27% below the June 25 record high of 2,987,000 won. The distance from the October 2025 52-week low is more than 340%. That extraordinary range underscores how dramatically the AI memory boom has recalibrated expectations over the past twelve months. The 14-day relative strength index sits at 46.1, neutral after the retreat from the peak, while the stock still trades above its 50-day and 100-day moving averages.
Group chairman Chey Tae-won travelled to New York in person for the listing ceremony, underlining the strategic weight of the event. The company’s annual revenue has nearly tripled from 2023 to 2025, reaching about $65 billion, and LSEG analysts forecast a further leap to roughly $235 billion in 2026 — almost entirely driven by HBM demand for AI infrastructure. SK Square, the investment arm spun off from SK Telecom in 2021, holds a 20.5% stake according to SEC filings.
With the ADRs now providing a second valuation reference point, analysts expect the discount to Western peers to narrow gradually over coming quarters. Whether that happens smoothly — or is interrupted by the cyclical crash Newman warns of — will be tested when the permanent ticker starts trading on Monday. For now, SK Hynix remains a dual-listed bet on the longevity of the AI buildout, with one foot in New York’s optimism and the other in Seoul’s jitters.
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