SK Hynix, one of the world’s leading memory chip suppliers, made its Wall Street debut at $170 per share on Friday, raising a staggering $26.5 billion and surpassing Alibaba's record as the largest foreign company IPO in history.

This monumental launch comes amidst a boom for all DRAM manufacturers, with SK Hynix now holding 29% of the global market. The surge is driven by the expanding realm of artificial intelligence, where tech giants like OpenAI and Nvidia heavily rely on high-bandwidth memory components for their data centers.

While SK Hynix’s valuation briefly outpaced Samsung as South Korea's most valuable company in May 2026, the chipmaker still faces a daunting challenge: meeting the insatiable demand for DRAM. Faced with this shortage, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won announced plans to boost memory chip capacity over the next five years.

Yet, there's an ironic twist as these high-paying AI customers come at the expense of traditional device manufacturers who are starved of chips for phones and computers. As the race to build out AI infrastructure intensifies, it remains a balancing act between meeting tech giants' demands while still catering to a broader market.