SK Hynix commenced trading at $170 per share, continuing to capitalize on the increasing demand for memory components.
Driven by the AI boom's surge in RAM demand, SK Hynix, one of the world's largest memory chip suppliers, debuted on Wall Street this Friday. The South Korean company launched at $170 per share, raising $26.5 billion in the process. This figure surpassed Alibaba’s previous record for the largest IPO of a foreign company, as reported by The Associated Press and CNN.
Having reached a valuation of $1 trillion in May, SK Hynix briefly overtook Samsung to become South Korea's most valuable company. As one of three major companies benefiting from surging demand for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), SK Hynix plays a critical role in the widespread buildout of AI data centers. Tech giants such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google utilize DRAM for server power, while HBM is packaged inside high-end AI chips like Nvidia's Blackwell Ultra.
According to Counterpoint data as of June 2026, SK Hynix holds a 29% share of the global DRAM market, with Samsung at 38% and Micron at 22%. Despite this dominance, the industry giants are struggling to meet the surging memory demand, prioritizing high-paying AI customers over device manufacturers requiring chips for phones, computers, and consoles. SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won announced in June that the company plans to significantly expand its memory chip production capacity over the next five years to address shortages expected to persist until 2030, according to Bloomberg.
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