SK Hynix—which supplies memory chips to Nvidia—is about to test Wall Street’s appetite for the next wave of tech IPOs
The Korean memory giant’s nearly 8-fold stock surge and $28 billion U.S. listing will show how much AI optimism is still left in the market.
Overview
Good morning. Another major AI supply-chain company is launching a U.S. listing. South Korean memory-chip maker SK Hynix, a key Nvidia supplier, is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq this Friday.
This follows Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which went public on June 12, listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker SPCX. The IPO is said to have raised about $86 billion, making it the largest IPO in financial market history.
According to regulatory filings, SK Hynix is aiming to raise approximately $28 billion via Nasdaq-listed American Depositary Receipts. The company is a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory. Unlike TSMC, which produces logic chips, SK Hynix focuses on memory—specifically DRAM (system memory) and NAND flash (storage used in solid-state drives).
“This is a positive indicator of the AI trade, with Korea chip plays now front and center,” Tech analyst Dan Ives told CFO Daily in an email about SK Hynix’s move to list on the Nasdaq. “The AI trade is spreading.”
Morningstar equity analyst Jing Jie Yu said SK Hynix’s U.S. listing, on its own, is unlikely to be a clear gauge of market conditions, as sentiment toward memory and tech stocks is already broadly similar across global markets.
“That said, I do believe that there is good appetite for the offering for U.S. and global investors, as it provides easier access and exposure to Korean stocks, which they might not have had prior to this,” he told me.
In a July 1 note, Morningstar raised its fair value estimate for SK Hynix, arguing the current memory upcycle is tracking much stronger than expected but that the industry remains cyclical, limiting upside at current levels, especially given how far the shares have already run. Morningstar still sees the stock trading at a discount to U.S. rival Micron.
Details
SK Hynix’s Korea-listed shares have surged roughly 770% over the past 12 months, even after a 20% pullback from a June peak, Fortune reported. That gain exceeds Micron Technology’s roughly 700% rally over the same period.
SK Hynix’s debut may also serve as an early test of investor appetite for the next wave of large technology listings.
Late 2026 is increasingly viewed as a window for a broader wave of marquee tech and AI IPOs. General Atlantic, in a June note on the “2026 IPO comeback,” highlighted the second half of the year as a period when valuation discounts may narrow, mid-cap and underrepresented sectors re-enter the market, and investors rotate gains from mega-deals into less crowded areas beyond core AI and semiconductors.
Sheryl Estrada
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Source
Originally published at fortune.com.
