With the development of memory and storage driven by artificial intelligence (AI), investors have flocked to companies like Micron technology again Sandisk. There has been, however, one successful operator in the space, but US investors have been largely stuck on the sidelines, unable to own it.
That company SK Hynixand it was difficult to own because it traded on the Korean Exchange. There have been “workarounds,” such as holding stocks KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETFas SK Hynix is among the holdings, but that has not replaced anyone who wanted a direct stake in SK Hynix.
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That all changed on July 10. SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion, making it the largest initial public offering of a foreign company in the US.
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Big demand for SK Hynix in its US debut
With AI’s insatiable demand for memory and storage, Micron and Sandisk have both succeeded. As of this writing, Micron shares are up more than 700% in the past year, while Sandisk shares are up more than 4,000%.
Quietly behind the Korean Exchange, SK Hynix’s stock price has fallen more than 630% in the past year. But again, because it wasn’t easy for US investors to buy stocks, many people who might have wanted to buy the stock couldn’t snap it up.
Not so anymore, as SK Hynix currently trades at Nasdaq under the ticker SKHYV. In its offering of American depositary receipts (ADRs), the South Korean company raised $26.5 billion, the highest. Alibaba GroupUS debut, according to Bloomberg. And according to Reuters, the demand was seven times the number of shares available.
SK Hynix sold ADRs for $149 each before listing on Nasdaq, and as of the afternoon of July 10, the stock was trading publicly at around $170.
What shareholders get with SK Hynix’s investment
Known as a sleepy, cyclical industry, memory and storage companies are now experiencing unprecedented demand for their products thanks to AI. That’s because data centers need access to high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
Within the HBM space, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix are considered the three major players. SK Hynix claims to be one of the largest memory semiconductor companies in the world, boasting a 56.4% global HBM market share in the first quarter of 2026.
That market share equates to rapidly growing revenue and margins. It has already reported US$34.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, more than half of the US$63.7 billion reported for all of 2025.
The perils of owning SK Hynix
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SK Hynix indicated that it has a low risk of harassment, as it sells a large number of its products to customers in the US and China, with its largest customers accounting for about 24 percent of the company’s total revenue by 2025.
In that SEC filing, SK Hynix also lists several risks that anyone considering a potential investment in the company should review. For example, 77.1% of the company’s total revenue in 2025 came from its random access memory (DRAM) products. If DRAM sales were to slow down, it would hit SK Hynix hard.
The company also cited potential difficulties in accessing critical supplies of raw materials immediately, as well as the need to increase its production capacity to achieve long-term growth.
Overall, the Nasdaq listing opens up an investment opportunity that was previously difficult for US investors to access directly. But like any investment, there’s no need to rush out and buy SK Hynix shares just because they went up a certain amount in one day. There is still plenty of time to consider whether it has the potential to be a long-term portfolio.
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Jack Delaney has no position in any of the specified stocks. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Micron Technology. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group and Nasdaq. The Motley Fool has disclosure policy.
SK Hynix’s Nasdaq Debut Becomes Largest US Foreign Company Listing was first published by The Motley Fool.
