SK Hynix achieves $1 trillion valuation in Wall Street debut powered by AI chip demand

South Korea's SK Hynix made a landmark entrance to Wall Street on Friday, opening at $170 per share and becoming the most valuable foreign company listing in history. The memory chip manufacturer raised $26.5 billion—surpassing Alibaba's previous record—and achieved a $1 trillion market valuation that briefly made it the country's most valuable firm.

Why AI is reshaping memory markets#

The dramatic valuation reflects a fundamental shift in semiconductor demand. AI data center buildouts by companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have created voracious appetite for memory chips. SK Hynix supplies two critical technologies: DRAM, which powers the servers running large language models, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is packaged directly into advanced accelerators such as Nvidia's Blackwell Ultra processors.

As of mid-2026, SK Hynix controls about 29 percent of the global DRAM market, trailing Samsung at 38 percent but ahead of Micron at 22 percent.

A bottleneck that could persist for years#

Even with three dominant players ramping production, memory supply cannot keep pace with demand. The companies have shifted priority toward lucrative AI customers, leaving traditional device makers—those building smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles—starved for chips. According to SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, the company intends to expand its memory capacity significantly over the next five years to address what could be an acute shortage lasting until 2030.

For more details, see the reporting from Associated Press and CNN.