ChipsJuly 10, 2026via The Verge Tech
Nvidia’s biggest RAM supplier just had a trillion-dollar debut on Wall Street
Why it matters
SK Hynix's record Wall Street debut signals explosive capital formation around AI compute infrastructure. As DRAM and HBM become critical bottlenecks for AI training and deployment, memory chip suppliers are capturing trillion-dollar valuations — a shift that reshapes the competitive landscape for AI buildout.
Key signals
- SK Hynix IPO raised $26.5 billion
- Opened at $170 per share
- Largest foreign company debut, surpassing Alibaba's record
- SK Hynix reached $1 trillion valuation in May 2026
- Briefly overtook Samsung as South Korea's most valuable company
- One of three major DRAM/HBM suppliers benefiting from AI demand surge
- DRAM and high-bandwidth memory are essential for AI infrastructure buildout
The hook
$26.5B. SK Hynix just became the largest foreign IPO ever — and it's a direct play on AI infrastructure demand.
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung. | Image: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
As the AI boom boosts demand for RAM, SK Hynix - one of the world's biggest suppliers of memory chips - launched on Wall Street Friday. The South Korean chipmaker opened at $170 per share and raised $26.5 billion, surpas…