SK Hynix raises $26.5 billion in US ADR offering as debut tests AI-driven memory demand

New SK Hynix ADRs are trading at a BIG premium  Financial TimesRetail-trader 'bottleneck bros' eyeing AI supply chain can't wait for SK Hynix options  CNBCSK Hynix ADR Premium Balloons to 51% Over Korean Shares  Bloomberg.comSK Hynix shares plunge 15% in wake of Nasdaq debut  The TimesSK Hynix shares surge 13% on AI hopes as US tech stocks resume their climb  Reuters

Shares in memory chip companies slumped across U.S. markets Monday, in a further sign of investor concerns over how much road is left for the AI stock market boom. SK Hynix’s American depository shares were down 8.9% by midday Monday, just days after its blockbuster stock market debut last week, the largest ever U.S. IPO by a foreign company. The chip giant was also the biggest faller in South Korea, plunging a record 15%, while tech giant Samsung also dropped 10.5%. The two firms dominate the country’s Kospi index, and the falls were so steep that they triggered a temporary stop in trading. Now, the selloff has carried over to the Nasdaq, where SK Hynix has its new secondary listing. Fellow memory storage company Micron Technology was down 4.8%; Sandisk fell 10.7%; and Western Digital was down 5.9% by midday Monday. Investors piled into SK Hynix’s U.S. debut Friday, keen to get a piece of another company that has benefitted hugely from the AI infrastructure boom. The Korean group is the global leader in high-bandwidth memory, the type needed for the most powerful AI servers. The IPO raised $26.5 billion and was more than seven times oversubscribed. Revenue and profit have surged recently, amid an ongoing memory chip shortage driven by AI companies’ vast demand for data center buildouts. Operating profit jumped 405% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, while revenue surged 198%, SK Hynix reported in April. But analysts are concerned about how fast shares have gone into reverse. Semiconductor stocks have been especially volatile in recent weeks, following a red-hot period earlier this year when many of them rallied dramatically. “It was always going to be a volatile ride after the company’s American depositary receipts began trading at such a heady valuation,” wrote Susannah Streeter, chief market strategist at Wealth Club, in a note. “While companies right now can’t get enough of SK Hynix’s products, there are concerns that a lot of this demand has been front-loaded and will ultimately prove cyclical.” SK Hynix appears to have been hurt by a report from Korea Investment & Securities, which projected its operating profit for the latest quarter may trail analyst forecasts by 8%. The brokerage pointed to its reliance on HBM as a share of revenue, saying prices are not rising as fast in that area as for conventional chips, reported Bloomberg. Other analysts suggested the volatility was to do with what the company’s fair value should be. “Everybody’s really confused about what’s going to happen to the memory demand and where the fair price is,” Daniel Yoo, global strategist at Yuanta Securities, told CNBC. “It’s all about how much demand is there versus how much supply is going to come in . . . [and] what kind of multiple you will be getting.”

SK Hynix's US-listed shares fell nearly 8% in early trade on Monday, giving up part of Friday’s strong debut gains as investors booked profits after a sharp rally in AI-linked memory stocks. The South Korean chipmaker’s American Depositary Receipts dropped 7.9% to $154.7 in early trading. The fall came after the ADRs jumped more than 12% on their Nasdaq debut on Friday. SK Hynix had priced the ADRs at $149 each, opened at $170 and ended their first session at $168.The sell-off was sharper in Seoul, where SK Hynix shares tumbled more than 15%, marking their biggest one-day fall in nearly two decades. The fall in SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics dragged South Korea’s Kospi down 9%, triggering a 20-minute trading halt.The weakness spread to US memory and storage stocks as well. Micron Technology fell 6.4%, SanDisk dropped 8.4% and Western Digital declined 6.8%. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index lost 3.6%.SK Hynix had raised more than $26 billion last week through its US listing, selling ADRs after its Korean shares had more than tripled this year. The company has been one of the biggest global beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom because of its leadership in high-bandwidth memory chips, which are used in AI data centres.Also Read: Dow Jones| Nasdaq | S&P 500 | US Stock Market Today | Live: S&P 500 and Nasdaq open lower as Iran tensions jolt sentiment, chip stocks slideThe stock’s sharp fall shows that investors are reassessing valuations after a rapid run-up. Chip stocks have had a weak start to July as concerns grow over whether the AI capital spending cycle can continue at the same pace.Investors are also watching the supply outlook. South Korea has been pushing large chip investment plans, with President Lee Jae Myung saying the government would help speed up projects to build chip fabs worth hundreds of billions of dollars, as outlined by Samsung and SK Hynix. While such investment supports long-term capacity, it has also raised concerns that today’s tight memory supply could eventually turn into oversupply.SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung has dismissed concerns about aggressive capacity expansion. He told Reuters that the memory industry is heading for its most severe supply shortage in 2027 and said demand could exceed the company’s production capacity well into the next decade.Volatility in SK Hynix has risen sharply this year as global investors chased exposure to AI memory. Leveraged products have added to the swings. In Hong Kong, a single-stock ETF tracking SK Hynix and targeting twice the daily returns of the shares fell more than one-third on Monday, its steepest one-day drop since listing in October.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

SK Hynix’s record plunge drags down global chip stocks  Investing.comSK Hynix plunges after Nasdaq debut as memory chip euphoria cools  ReutersSK Hynix ADRs Tumble in Second Trading Day After Korea Selloff  Bloomberg.comSK Hynix stock falls, leads broader chip sector declines as AI trade angst returns  Yahoo! Finance CanadaSouth Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing  The Guardian

Jim Cramer Explains SK Hynix’s (SKHY) Role In Global Memory Industry  Yahoo FinanceChip giant SK Hynix closed out its market debut roughly 13% higher on Friday.  Yahoo FinanceSouth Korean Memory Chip Maker’s Historic U.S. Debut Jolts Stocks  WSJSK Hynix rises 13% in Nasdaq debut. Chairman tells CNBC 'demand is enormous'  CNBCA once-obscure chip maker has landed the largest US listing by a foreign company  CNN