SK Hynix, one of the biggest memory chip manufacturers on the planet, has officially entered the U.S. stock market at a moment when the explosive growth of artificial intelligence is driving demand for its products far beyond what the company can currently produce.
The South Korean tech giant is already a major player on the Seoul stock exchange, trading alongside Samsung Electronics on the Kospi index. Despite a recent dip, the Kospi has climbed 77% this year, and SK Hynix shares have more than tripled in value.
The company set the price of its American depositary receipts, known as ADRs, at $149 apiece on Thursday. With 177.9 million ADRs offered at that price, the total proceeds came to $26.5 billion — making it the single largest U.S. debut ever by a foreign company. The shares were set to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday.
SK Hynix holds a commanding global share of the high bandwidth memory market, a type of chip that is essential to developing cutting-edge AI systems. The company recently formed a partnership with Nvidia, Wall Street’s most valuable company, to supply advanced memory chips as AI infrastructure continues to expand around the world.
The AI boom has been a major profit driver for chipmakers across the industry. As demand for memory chips outstrips supply, prices have risen sharply. Technology giant Apple recently announced it would raise prices on Macs and iPads, citing the increased cost of memory chips.
The United States is SK Hynix’s single largest market, generating 68.8% of the company’s revenue last year. The company is also planning to build its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Indiana. In 2025, SK Hynix posted revenue of just under $65 billion, with profits nearly doubling to around $28 billion.
The company recently joined Samsung and the South Korean government in announcing a combined investment of 800 trillion won — roughly $518 billion — to build a new semiconductor manufacturing hub in the southwestern part of South Korea. The initiative is part of a broader national effort to spread economic development beyond the greater Seoul area, which currently serves as the country’s financial and semiconductor hub.
The promise of continued profit growth has sent tech stock prices soaring, especially among chipmakers. Micron Technology’s stock more than tripled in 2025 and is on pace to do so again in 2026. Nvidia saw similar gains in earlier years and posted more modest growth in 2025.
Major chipmakers have grown into some of the most powerful and valuable companies on Wall Street, and their elevated stock prices have had an outsized effect on major market indexes, which have been hitting record highs largely on the strength of the tech sector.
SK Hynix shares trading in Seoul edged down 0.3% on Friday.
