South Korea’s SK Hynix raises $26.5bn in record-breaking US IPO

South Korean spot elephantine makes largest-ever debut by a overseas steadfast successful the US, eclipsing Alibaba’s 2014 IPO.

South Korean spot elephantine SK Hynix has raised a record-breaking $26.5bn up of its Wall Street debut amid soaring request for semiconductors utilized successful AI.

SK Hynix said connected Friday that it had sold 177.9 cardinal American depositary shares (ADS) astatine $149 each up of its listing connected the New York-based Nasdaq banal exchange.

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ADS are US dollar-denominated shares of a overseas institution that tin beryllium bought and sold connected the US market.

SK Hynix’s 177.9 cardinal ADSs are equivalent to 18 cardinal mean shares.

SK Hynix’s archetypal nationalist offering (IPO) marks the largest-ever listing by a overseas institution successful the US, surpassing Chinese e-commerce elephantine Alibaba’s $25bn debut successful 2014.

The listing besides ranks arsenic the second-largest globally, aft SpaceX’s record-breaking $85.7bn Nasdaq listing successful June.

Bloomberg, citing radical acquainted with the matter, reported that the listing was much than 7 times oversubscribed.

Dilin Wu, a probe strategist astatine Pepperstone successful Melbourne, Australia, said the marketplace reception had exceeded “even the astir optimistic expectations”.

“Seven times oversubscribed, astir $171bn successful orders for a $24-28bn deal, and this happened portion the semiconductor assemblage was actively selling disconnected and the Kospi was successful a circuit breaker week,” Wu told Al Jazeera, referring to South Korea’s benchmark banal marketplace index.

“I deliberation the SK Hynix ADR pricing says 1 happening precise clearly: the AI representation rhythm is real, the net are real, and planetary superior has simply ne'er had casual entree to the champion axenic representation play successful the space,” Wu said.

SK Hynix has racked up record-breaking profits connected the backmost of furious request for its precocious representation chips, with nett income hitting 40.34 trillion won ($26.6bn) successful the archetypal 4th of 2026.

SK Hynix’s shares connected the South Korean banal speech person soared astir 229 percent since the commencement of the year.

In May, the spot behemoth joined the elite nine of companies worthy astatine slightest $1 trillion alongside rival chipmakers Samsung Electronics and the US-based Micron Technology.

SK Hynix and Samsung some signed connected to a $1 trillion AI concern inaugural announced by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung precocious past month, pledging to put $518bn with suppliers to physique 2 chipmaking facilities.

SK Hynix’s South Korea-listed shares were up astir 0.8 percent arsenic of 06:30 GMT connected Friday.

“Clearly there’s immense amounts of superior chasing the AI opportunity,” Cameron Robertson, a portfolio manager astatine Platinum Asset Management successful Sydney, Australia, told Al Jazeera.

“Investors astir the satellite are scrambling to find ways to nett from it. I deliberation what we are seeing is simply a premix of genuine assurance and speculative activity.”

Alex Holmes, determination manager for Asia Pacific astatine the Economist Intelligence Unit, said SK Hynix had benefitted from a displacement successful capitalist sentiment towards companies successful the semiconductor proviso concatenation amid concerns astir the sustainability of the multibillion-dollar AI budgets of tech giants specified arsenic Amazon and Microsoft.

The “Magnificent Seven” – Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Tesla – traded astatine their lowest levels successful a decennary this week comparative to the benchmark S&P 500 index, according to Morgan Stanley.

“Within tech, the [Magnificent Seven] person underperformed, and maturation has alternatively concentrated successful the semiconductor proviso chain. In the US that’s firms similar Micron … In Asia, SK Hynix and Samsung person been large winners,” Holmes told Al Jazeera.

SK Hynix’s stellar tally has mirrored a broader AI-driven rally successful South Korea’s banal market, which is up much than 70 percent truthful acold successful 2026.

“Korea has perfectly been swept up successful the excitement implicit the past twelvemonth – you tin spot that successful the accelerated maturation successful borderline lending successful the country, the emergence successful popularity of azygous banal levered ETFs, and retail information successful the banal market,” Platinum Asset Management’s Robertson said.