SK Hynix raises $26.5B in record Nasdaq IPO; CEO warns HBM shortage will extend beyond 2030

SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion in its Nasdaq debut on July 10, 2026, a record for any foreign company's ADR offering in the U.S. market. The company's stock soared 13.3% on the first day of trading, closing at $168.85. The IPO comes as SK Hynix commands 56.4% of the global high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, a critical bottleneck component for AI accelerators worldwide, with demand running 7 times oversubscribed.

CEO Kwak Noh-jung stated in his first-ever English-language interview that the company forecasts 2027 will bring "the worst year in the industry's history from the supply perspective," with customer demand continuing to outpace production capacity for years beyond 2030. SK Hynix has already sold out its entire 2026 memory production and announced plans to double wafer capacity over five years, while committing $15 billion to expanded HBM and advanced DRAM production in 2026.

SK Hynix's Q1 2026 operating profit reached 37.6 trillion won ($27.8 billion) at a 71.5% operating margin, powered by soaring HBM demand. However, the company faces structural constraints: HBM production requires roughly 3x the wafer capacity of standard DRAM, meaning capacity reallocated to AI comes directly from consumer memory, driving DDR prices up ~700% over four years. For architects: the HBM shortage is now structural, not cyclical. Expect sustained memory cost pressures and device-to-memory BOM shifts through 2027+.