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, surpassing Alibaba’s record as the largest debut of a foreign company, according to reports from Associated Press and CNN.
After reaching a $1 trillion valuation in May, SK Hynix briefly overtook Samsung as South Korea’s most valuable company. SK Hynix is one of three major companies benefitting from a surge in demand for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). These components have become essential for the widespread buildout of AI data centers, as tech giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google use DRAM for the servers to power their AI models, while HBM comes packaged inside high-end AI chips like Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra.
As of June 2026, SK Hynix makes up 29 percent of the global DRAM market, with Samsung at 38 percent and Micron at 22 percent, according to data from Counterpoint. The three giants still can’t keep up with memory demand as they continue to prioritize high-paying AI customers over device makers who need the chips for phones, computers, consoles, and more. SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won said in June that the company plans to ramp up its memory chip capacity over the next five years to address a shortage that could last until 2030, Bloomberg reports.
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