The AI chip boom produced its most spectacular Wall Street moment yet. SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chip giant, raised $26.5 billion in its U.S. market debut. This is the largest foreign initial public offering (IPO) ever in America, surpassing Alibaba’s IPO in 2014 by $1.5 billion.
The company sold 177.9 million American depositary shares at $149 each, attracting significant interest from U.S. investors. The stock opened at 14% above its IPO price and continued to rise during early trading. The funds raised will be used for expanding facilities and acquiring next-generation equipment.
Meanwhile, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick visited a Micron event, urging the broader semiconductor industry, not just U.S. memory maker Micron (one of SK Hynix’s biggest competitors), to consider building new factories in the U.S., fearing that South Korea could continue dominating this vital technology.
The Micron announcement includes a $250 billion investment pledge for new manufacturing sites in America, promising over 90,000 jobs and maintaining leading-edge chip production on American soil. SK Hynix’s success challenges the long-standing ‘Korea Discount’ – the belief that Korean companies trade at lower valuations due to governance issues and geopolitical risks.
