SK Hynix Raises 26.5 Billion Dollars in the Largest Foreign IPO in US History, Then Jumps 13 Percent

SK Hynix, the South Korean maker of the high-bandwidth memory chips installed alongside Nvidia's processors in artificial-intelligence (AI) servers, priced its American depositary receipts at 149 dollars and raised 26.5 billion dollars, the largest first-time US listing ever by a company based outside the United States. The figure surpassed the 25 billion dollars Alibaba raised in 2014.

The receipts closed at 168.01 dollars, up 13 percent on their first Nasdaq session. The company's chairman told CNBC that "demand is enormous," and Reuters reported the offering was oversubscribed roughly seven times. The Indian financial press framed the debut as proof that appetite for AI-linked semiconductor stocks has not faded despite recent declines in chip shares.

The proceeds are set aside for new factories and equipment, and US officials have pressed the company to build fabrication plants in the United States. That places SK Hynix in two competitions at once. One is the effort to supply memory for AI data centers. The other is the push by Washington and Seoul to move advanced chipmaking closer to the United States.

The size of the raise, drawn from public markets rather than private capital, is itself the signal. It tells frontier-technology firms considering listings that investors will still commit very large sums for exposure to the expansion of AI infrastructure.