The world's largest foreign company's listing in the United States has been completed. South Korean chip giant SK Hynix officially landed on the U.S. stock market, igniting an AI investment boom
Xinhua News Agency, New York, July 10th: On July 10th, Eastern Time, the depository receipts (ADRs) of South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix were officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The global core high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip maker successfully raised US$26.5 billion through this initial public offering (IPO), setting a record for the scale of foreign companies listing in the United States. On the first day of trading, SK Hynix surged 13%, with its closing market value soaring to US$1.2 trillion, surpassing Micron Technology and AMD ) and other American chip giants. Strongly boosted by this historic IPO, Wall Street investors' enthusiasm for investing in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector has rebounded significantly. The three major U.S. stock indexes collectively ended higher in shock on Friday. As of the close of the day, the S&P 500 index rose 0.4%. The Composite Index rose 0.3%, The Industrial Average rose 0.3% (about 150 points). Judging from the full-week performance, the S&P 500 index rose by 1.2% for the week, the Nasdaq index rose by 1.7% for the week, while the Dow Jones index fell by 0.5% for the week, ending the previous four consecutive weeks of rising momentum. Affected by the military conflict between the United States and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, which triggered global inflation concerns, and the market's recent repeated assessment of the rationality of the valuation of AI companies, the international capital market has experienced a round of violent fluctuations. Earlier this week, affected by the global sell-off in technology stocks, SK Hynix’s share price in the local Korean market suffered sharp corrections on Tuesday and Wednesday for two consecutive days. However, the strong demand for SK Hynix shown by the US stock market on Friday effectively hedged against the uncertainty caused by geopolitics. Regulatory documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that this issuance attracted widespread participation from the world’s top investment institutions. A number of first-line technology investment funds, including Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management and Situational Awareness Partners, clearly expressed their intention to subscribe for a total of up to US$7 billion before the listing. Regarding the purpose of fundraising, SK Hynix officially stated that the huge amount of funds raised this time will be mainly used to accelerate the construction of local core assets, including funding the newly built semiconductor industry cluster and advanced chip packaging base in South Korea, and will be used to purchase next-generation advanced process chip manufacturing equipment. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, the parent company of SK hynix, emphasized in an interview with the media that the group plans to double its production capacity in the next five years, but even so, feedback from global major customers is that supply exceeds demand. Wall Street investment research institutions generally believe that the success of SK Hynix’s US stock debut has released a positive signal that the AI infrastructure construction boom cycle is far from over. Although the market is still divided on the intensity of cyclical fluctuations in the memory industry, mainstream fund management institutions are clearly optimistic about the industry roadmap from 2026 to 2027, and believe that the dividends of the AI industry chain will further spread to traditional sectors such as industry and power, thereby forming mid- to long-term support for the overall macro securities market.