SK Hynix raises $26.5B in largest foreign IPO debut; HBM supply drives 13% opening pop

SK Hynix completed the largest U.S. initial public offering by a foreign company on July 10, 2026, raising $26.5 billion via American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq. The offering was priced at $149 per ADS—at the top of the range—and opened trading at $170, representing a 13–14% first-day gain. The deal was oversubscribed more than seven times by institutional investors, underscoring massive demand for AI-related infrastructure plays and the critical HBM supply bottleneck.

SK Hynix controls roughly 56% of the global high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, supplying every Nvidia H100, H200, and Blackwell GPU. The company plans to deploy proceeds toward expanding manufacturing in South Korea (including its Yongin semiconductor cluster and Cheongju packaging facility) and its first U.S. packaging plant in Indiana. The Nasdaq entry broadens SK Hynix's investor base and closes a valuation gap: Korean-listed shares had lagged comparable U.S. semiconductor companies.

For infrastructure planners, SK Hynix's IPO pop validates investor conviction that HBM supply shortages persist through 2029 as data center buildouts accelerate. The 56% market-share position gives SK Hynix pricing power and inventory control, but Samsung and Micron are investing aggressively to close the gap. The company's $1+ trillion market cap and oversubscribed offering signal that memory supply—not just AI model performance—is now a first-order constraint on data center deployment economics.