U.S. Investors Frenzy! SK Hynix Soars 17% in U.S. Stock Market Debut

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix officially debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday (10th), opening at $170 per share—approximately 17% higher than its American Depositary Receipt (ADR) pricing of $149—demonstrating strong enthusiasm from U.S. investors for the AI chip powerhouse with a market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion.

SK Hynix is currently trading under the ticker symbol "SKHYV" and will switch to "SKHY" starting next Tuesday. The ADR issuance raised a total of $26.5 billion, which will fund aggressive expansion plans, including investments in new factories and equipment.

At the time of reporting, SK Hynix (SKHYV-US) was up 17.45% during Friday’s trading session, temporarily reaching $175.00 per share.

Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Hynix, said in a Friday interview with CNBC: "It feels like a dream, and now the dream has come true."

By market capitalization, SK Hynix is currently South Korea’s second-largest company, trailing only Samsung Electronics. Like Samsung, SK Hynix primarily produces memory chips used for short-term data storage in smartphones and personal computers, with major global tech clients including NVIDIA (NVDA-US) and Apple (AAPL-US).

For decades, memory chips were considered a relatively quiet corner of the semiconductor industry. However, the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has completely transformed the sector, turning it into a massive high-growth market. As demand for AI infrastructure surges, memory supply shortages have driven up prices, and SK Hynix’s valuation has more than septupled over the past year.

Chey said that every time he meets with customers and partners, they all demand more chips. Even though SK Hynix has already announced plans to double its production capacity within five years, clients continue to say supply remains far from sufficient.

"All my customers say, 'Hey, that’s not enough—we need more,'" Chey said.

SK Hynix is currently the market leader in high-performance memory required for NVIDIA’s AI chips. Unlike the standard RAM used in phones or laptops, AI chips require high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is created by stacking multiple layers of traditional memory through complex manufacturing processes and is a critical component of AI computing infrastructure.

SK Hynix has announced a $4 billion investment to build an advanced packaging facility in Indiana, USA, where some HBM chips will be packaged domestically. However, the vast majority of the company’s expansion plans over the coming years will remain concentrated in South Korea, including a massive wafer fabrication cluster in Yongin with a $390 billion investment.

SK Hynix’s listing comes roughly a month after Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX-US) went public in the largest IPO in history, once again bringing a heavyweight tech company to Wall Street.