SK Hynix's Nasdaq Debut Just Became the Largest U.S. Listing by a Foreign Company

For the memory and storage boom driven by artificial intelligence (AI), investors have flooded into companies like Micron Technology and Sandisk. There's been, however, another successful operator in the space, but U.S. investors have largely been stuck on the sidelines, unable to own it.

That company is SK Hynix, and it's been difficult to own because it has been trading on the Korean Exchange. There were some "workarounds," such as owning shares of the KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF, since SK Hynix is among its holdings, but that still wasn't a substitute for anyone who wanted a direct stake in SK Hynix.

That all changed on July 10. SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion, making it the largest first-time listing for a foreign company in the U.S.

Massive demand for SK Hynix in its U.S. debut

With AI's insatiable demand for memory and storage, Micron and Sandisk have both been winners. As of this writing, Micron shares are up over 700% over the last year, and Sandisk shares are up more than 4,000%.

Quietly in the background on the Korean Exchange, SK Hynix's stock price has jumped by more than 630% in the past year. But again, because it wasn't easy for U.S. investors to buy shares, many folks who might have wanted to buy the stock couldn't capture that upside.

That's no longer the case, as SK Hynix is currently trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SKHYV. In its offering of American depositary receipts (ADRs), the South Korean company raised $26.5 billion, topping Alibaba Group's U.S. debut, according to Bloomberg. And according to Reuters, demand was seven times higher than the number of shares that were available.

SK Hynix sold the ADRs for $149 each before being listed on the Nasdaq, and by the afternoon of July 10, the stock was trading to the public around $170.

What shareholders gain access to with a SK Hynix investment

Known for being a sleepy, cyclical sector, 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 three of the biggest players. SK Hynix claims it is one of the world's largest memory semiconductor companies, boasting a global HBM market share of 56.4% in the first quarter of 2026.

That market share is equating to revenue growing by leaps and bounds. It already reported in U.S. dollars $34.5 billion for the first quarter of 2026, more than half of the $63.7 billion in revenue it reported for all of 2025.

The risks of owning SK Hynix

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SK Hynix showed it does have a bit of concentration risk, as it sells a substantial amount of its products to customers in the U.S. and China, with its largest customer accounting for nearly 24% of the company's total revenue in 2025.

In that SEC filing, SK Hynix also lists several risks that anyone considering a potential investment in the company should review. For instance, 77.1% of the company's total revenue in 2025 came from its dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) products. If DRAM sales were to slow, it would hit SK Hynix especially hard.

The company also listed the potential difficulties of accessing key supplies of raw materials promptly, as well as the need to increase its production capacity to achieve long-term growth.

Overall, the Nasdaq listing opens an investment opportunity that was previously difficult for U.S. investors to access directly. But just like with any investment, there's no need to rush in and buy shares of SK Hynix just because it went up a certain amount in one day. There's still plenty of time to consider if it has the potential to be a long-term holding in a portfolio.

Jack Delaney has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Micron Technology. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group and Nasdaq. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.