SK Hynix shares tumble in Seoul after blockbuster Nasdaq debut

SK Hynix shares tumbled in Seoul on Monday, falling 15.4% after a blockbuster Nasdaq debut that had briefly pushed the Korean chipmaker into the center of the global AI trade. The drop came just days after U.S.-listed shares opened about 14% above the offering price, underscoring how quickly sentiment can reverse when a newly minted Wall Street benchmark starts competing with the home-market valuation.

The company raised $26.5 billion in the U.S. listing by selling 177.9 million American depositary receipts at $149 each, making it the largest-ever U.S. debut by a non-American company and surpassing Alibaba’s 2014 IPO. Demand was more than seven times the available shares, and the stock’s first U.S. session closed about 13% higher before Seoul investors confronted a fresh reference price that now sits alongside the long-established Korean listing.

That split-screen trading has become the key issue. The Nasdaq debut created a new valuation benchmark for SK Hynix, and market participants are now weighing whether the Seoul shares should track that premium or absorb the usual after-IPO cooling. Yuanta Securities strategist Daniel Yoo said investors were confused about memory demand and fair value, while Rayliant Global Advisors’ Phillip Wool framed the weakness as portfolio rebalancing and risk management rather than evidence of a deeper deterioration in the chip industry.

The broader debate goes beyond one stock’s first week of trading. Analysts said the pullback looked more like profit-taking than a collapse in the AI narrative, especially because demand for high-bandwidth memory remains tight relative to supply. But the scale of the selloff also showed how much of the market’s enthusiasm had already been priced in, with investors now forced to test whether earnings can justify the hype that accompanied the U.S. debut.

The listing also amplified the financial engineering around the name. Leverage Shares by Themes said 2x long and 1x short SK Hynix ETFs were set to begin trading in the U.S. on Monday, a sign that the stock’s volatility was drawing a new layer of speculative products. ETF Action’s Mike Akins warned that leverage in the market was “getting a little carried away.”

The deal’s proceeds are earmarked for a new fab in South Korea, a packaging facility and EUV scanners, while U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been discussing new factories with Samsung and SK Hynix. For now, the company’s record-setting U.S. debut has handed investors a new price to argue over, and Seoul’s sharp selloff showed how little margin there is between AI exuberance and valuation discipline.