The largest-ever US listing by a foreign company raised $26.5 billion, but day-two jitters and a simultaneous blockchain token launch are reshaping how investors think about AI chip exposure.
SK Hynix just pulled off the biggest US listing ever by a foreign company. Then its stock dropped more than 9% the very next day.
The South Korean memory chip giant’s American Depositary Receipts debuted on NASDAQ on July 10 after raising approximately $26.5 billion, pricing 177.9 million ADRs at $149 each. On day one, shares opened between $170 and $173, a gain of roughly 13-15% from the issue price. On day two, the market pulled back hard, with shares declining more than 9%.
A record-breaking debut meets gravity #
SK Hynix’s $26.5 billion raise eclipsed Alibaba’s 2014 IPO, which had held the crown for over a decade as the largest US listing by a foreign company. The offering was oversubscribed more than seven times. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won attended the opening ceremony on NASDAQ. SK Hynix is one of the world’s leading producers of high-bandwidth memory chips, the silicon that makes modern AI systems actually work.
Tokenized shares hit Solana #
On the same day as the day-two selloff, SK Hynix launched tokenized versions of its shares, branded as xStocks under the ticker SKHYx, on Solana and other blockchain platforms.
This allows trading of a blockchain-based representation of SK Hynix equity on decentralized infrastructure, 24/7, without needing a traditional brokerage account.
Why this matters for AI and crypto investors #
SK Hynix’s high-bandwidth memory chips are essential components in the GPU clusters that power large language models and autonomous driving systems. The seven-times oversubscription of this offering signals continued institutional appetite for AI hardware exposure.
For crypto-native investors, the tokenized share launch creates a pathway into AI infrastructure exposure without leaving the blockchain ecosystem. The product is available on Solana, which has been positioning itself as a chain for tokenized assets and high-throughput financial applications. What investors should watch now is whether trading volume on the tokenized SKHYx shares builds meaningful liquidity, or whether the product remains a curiosity. If on-chain volume starts to represent even a small fraction of NASDAQ trading activity, it would validate the thesis that tokenized equities are moving from concept to infrastructure.
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