SK Hynix Rides Micron Tailwind and $29.4B Nasdaq Plan as DDR5 Margins Hit 90%
Published on 06/25/2026 at 13:23 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A double dose of good news has sent SK Hynix shares surging. The South Korean chipmaker gained 13.06% on Thursday, closing at 2,917,000 won — a new 52-week high — as investors digested a blowout quarter from US rival Micron Technology and a landmark plan to list American Depositary Receipts on the Nasdaq.
Micron provided the immediate spark. The US memory giant reported quarterly revenue of $41.46 billion, almost doubling the prior quarter, and guided for roughly $50 billion in the current period. The message was clear: demand for AI-focused memory, particularly high-bandwidth memory (HBM), continues to outstrip supply. That thesis directly benefits SK Hynix, which dominates the HBM market alongside Samsung Electronics.
But the bigger story is SK Hynix’s own ambitions on Wall Street. The company intends to raise up to $29.4 billion through the sale of ADRs on the Nasdaq, starting July 10. That would make it the largest Korean IPO ever on a US exchange. The proceeds are earmarked for expanding production capacity — new fabrication sites, additional packaging lines in Cheongju, and purchases of EUV lithography equipment — all aimed at boosting output of the HBM chips that power Nvidia’s AI accelerators.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
Yet there is a notable tactical shift beneath the surface. SK Hynix is dialing back its HBM4 expansion and instead prioritising conventional DDR5 memory. The rationale is compelling: analysts forecast DDR5 margins reaching up to 90% this year, driven by acute shortages in the standard DRAM market. The company is betting that short-term profits from DDR5 will fund its long-term HBM ambitions.
The Nasdaq listing is a bet on the next growth cycle, but the benefits will take time. New capacity financed by the IPO is not expected to come online before 2027. In the meantime, SK Hynix is already shipping samples of its next-generation HBM4E memory, a 12-layer stack offering improved performance and lower power consumption.
The market has rewarded this strategy in spades. The stock has surged roughly 336% year to date, briefly overtaking Samsung as South Korea’s most valuable listed company, with a market capitalisation that flirted with $1 trillion. The broader KOSPI index climbed 5.4% on the semiconductor rally, underscoring the dominance of SK Hynix and Samsung, which together account for more than half of the index’s market weight.
All eyes now turn to SK Hynix’s own quarterly results. Investors expect similarly packed order books and stable margins, mirroring the optimism Micron has ignited. The combination of a near-term DDR5 gold rush and a long-term HBM investment pipeline, backed by the deepest US listing ever from a Korean company, has created a powerful narrative — one that currently commands a very high price.
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