#SK Hynix and Samsung Memory Chip Market Trends

South Korea’s stock market opened on a steep decline, with SK Hynix’s shares falling below their IPO price. Abnormally low pre-market orders were routed through the NXT system to Hyperliquid, causing SKHX contracts to plummet by 17.8% within just one minute. This sudden crash triggered a chain reaction, resulting in liquidation losses of over $128 million within 4 hours. Of this amount, backup accounts took over $26.26 million worth of long positions and were subject to reverse liquidation. This incident made SK Hynix the first company in history to see its share price fall below its IPO price in a major foreign-funded IPO, with the scale of liquidation temporarily exceeding that of Binance.

SK Hynix announced today a record-breaking IPO, raising $26.5 billion. This move triggered a sell-off of the U.S. dollar, helping the Korean won rebound. In response, South Korea’s Ministry of Finance accelerated efforts to encourage export companies to repatriate their overseas earnings. Driven by these developments and soaring prices for memory chips, SK Hynix’s pre-tax profit for Q2 is expected to exceed 100 trillion won, setting a new historical high. Despite the strong company performance, the overall memory chip sector in the U.S. market faced pressure, with SK Hynix’s stock falling 8.57% on the day and Micron dropping nearly 6.6%, showing a divergent trend within the sector.

Affected by South Korea’s regulators raising margin requirements for leveraged ETFs, the Korean Composite Index tumbled 5.73% in a single day, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics leading the decline by over 7%. Against this backdrop, Morgan Stanley was removed from the joint lead underwriting group for SK Hynix’s $26.5 billion ADR offering due to previously published bearish reports and involvement in controversies. It also failed to join the underwriting team composed of institutions such as Goldman Sachs, prompting further scrutiny of the investment banks’ reputations and SK Hynix’s listing process.

Driven by improving trends in memory chip markets, South Korea’s composite index opened higher by 6900 points. SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics led the gains, rising 4% and 3.2%, respectively. The U.S. memory sector also strengthened, with SK Hynix’s gain expanding to 4.8%. Foreign investors bought South Korean stocks for 55.7 trillion won on the 4th, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics absorbing over 80% of this inflow—totaling 44.8 trillion won—in pushing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index back into positive territory.

Due to the 2.5% issuance cap being reached, the conversion of SK Hynix ADRs has been hindered, leaving over half of the arbitrage trades unexecuted.

Driven by strong gains in U.S. semiconductor stocks, SK Hynix’s shares rose 8.5% on the day, hitting a new high for July, while Samsung Electronics also gained 5.79%. Foreign investors made net purchases worth 717.6 billion won, and high-net-worth Koreans purchased leveraged ETFs for over 430 billion won. Meanwhile, the premium rate of SK Hynix’s ADRs climbed to 29.8%, with only 5 days remaining before the conversion date on July 29. Retail investor CFD positions surged to 33 trillion won, and the sharp increase in leveraged derivative exposure has raised concerns about potential chain liquidation risks in the market.

Today, South Korea’s semiconductor sector showed strong collective performance, driving the KOSPI index to rise to 6,777.32 points during trading (a gain of 4%). Among them, Samsung Electronics, the leader in memory chips, led the gains with its stock price surging by 6.4% on the day; SK Hynix followed closely behind, with a rise of 3.52% to 4.7%. Meanwhile, global memory chip stocks also performed well, with four major companies including Micron and Western Digital all posting gains of over 10%, pushing up the Roundhill Memory ETF and SK Hynix ADRs as well, reflecting strong market expectations for a recovery in demand for memory chips.

South Korea’s composite index dropped by over 4% on a single trading day, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both declining by 4.4%, reflecting significant pressure on the semiconductor sector. Subsequently, market sentiment reversed, as SK Hynix’s ADRs led gains by more than 5% before the opening, rebounding from their sharp declines. Share prices of major manufacturers such as Seagate and Micron also rose, while Samsung Electronics performed strongly, largely recovering the losses it had incurred earlier.

On July 29, SK Hynix initiated its ADR conversion process, after which its ADRs traded at a premium of over 25% compared to its local shares. Arbitrage activities are expected to narrow this price gap. During the same period, the South Korean KOSPI index’s price-earnings ratio dropped to 5.78 times, hitting a new low since 2004. Goldman Sachs maintained a target of 12,000 points and advised investors to buy on dips, while foreign investors made net purchases worth 19 billion won last week.

SK Hynix ADR rose more than 7% to $164, with AI-related stocks such as Micron and Dell also seeing strong gains, driving solid performance in the storage sector.

On that day, the U.S. memory chip sector faced widespread selling pressure, leading to a significant deterioration in market sentiment. SK Hynix’s ADR dropped by over 7% during trading, while its domestic shares fell by 6.58%. Samsung SSD’s stock tumbled by more than 10%, and Western Digital’s shares also declined by nearly 9%. Giants such as Micron and Western Digital saw similar declines, with some stocks experiencing corrections of over 40%, pushing the entire industry into a period of deep adjustment.

SK Hynix’s stock price surged by 22% in a single day, pushing its market value to $1.36 trillion and setting a new record since its listing, with the share price reaching $185.9. Driven by this surge, South Korea’s KOSPI index rose by 3.49%, while the net values of related leveraged funds climbed by 24% in one day. Despite the bullish market sentiment, Bank of America noted that the company’s new production capacity by 2028 might be only one-sixth of the original plan, indicating a significant delay in expansion efforts.

The SKHX contract on the Hyperliquid platform saw its trading fee surge by over 130% within just one hour, with 24-hour trading volume reaching $18.36 billion—indicating intensified buying and selling competition. Meanwhile, a semi-analytical firm raised its expectations for SK Hynix’s DRAM products, citing their cost-effectiveness, which helped reverse losses in the South Korean stock market, pushing the KOSPI index up by 2%.

Driven by concerns over excess computing power, the storage chip industry has seen a shift in its business model, with long-term contracts replacing short-term orders as the norm—this trend has caused leading companies like Micron to see their stock prices drop by over 20% on a weekly basis. Against this backdrop, SK Hynix successfully went public on U.S. stock markets, raising $26.5 billion in funds, setting a record for overseas IPOs. On its first trading day, its stock price surged by approximately 17%, bringing its total market value to $1.28 trillion. The high demand from institutional investors—exceeding 7 times the offered shares—has sparked widespread attention and a reevaluation of its valuation in the market.

Affected by concerns over excess computing power, the memory chip sector dropped over 20% on a weekly basis, triggering a reshaping of industry dynamics. Against this backdrop, SK Hynix posted strong performance on its first day of trading on U.S. stock markets, raising $26.5 billion—setting a record for overseas IPOs. Its share price rose by about 17%, bringing its total market value to $1.28 trillion. Institutional demand exceeded seven times the offered shares, significantly boosting market confidence.

SK Hynix’s U.S. ADR issuance price has been set at $149, representing a 3.1% premium over its closing price in South Korea. There is strong demand from institutional investors, with a subscription multiple of over 7 times, and the final pricing will be confirmed on Thursday. The company aims to raise $24.5 billion through this U.S. IPO, underwritten by four major banks. Meanwhile, driven by rising memory chip prices and growing OLED demand, HSBC forecasts Samsung Electronics’ annual profit could reach 376 trillion won, up 25% quarter-on-quarter in Q3.

The U.S. stock market’s storage sector suffered a sharp decline, with Western Digital dropping over 8% during trading and SanDisk leading the drop at more than 11%, while Micron also fell by over 5%. Driven by weakness in tech stocks, shares of Seagate and Western Digital both dropped by more than 30% from their recent highs, with Micron falling 28%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index opened down 4%, with leading stocks such as AMD and Intel also declining, putting significant pressure on the entire sector and resulting in substantial capital outflows.

SK Hynix has launched a $43 trillion Korean won U.S. stock issuance, securing $7 billion in institutional subscriptions, aiming to address its valuation discount and fund capacity expansion as well as the purchase of EUV equipment. UBS has raised its target price to 3.2 million Korean won based on HBM prospects. The related foreign exchange transactions are expected to be completed on July 15, with their outcome serving as a barometer of AI investment enthusiasm.

SK Hynix has officially launched the process for listing on the U.S. stock market, planning to issue approximately 17.79 million American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) with a target net financing amount of $28 billion (around 43 trillion won). This initiative has received support from top funds such as Baillie Gifford and Coatue, who have expressed interest in purchasing $7 billion worth of shares, reflecting strong market appetite. With this funding scale ranking among the highest in history, trading is expected to begin on July 10. If successful, it will make SK Hynix one of the top three largest IPOs globally, significantly boosting sentiment in the semiconductor sector.

South Korean lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo criticized the increasing volatility in the stock market, noting that capital inflows reached 212 trillion won, pushing the market value share of Samsung and SK Hynix above 55%. The Bank of Korea warned that single-stock leveraged ETFs exacerbate herd behavior and market volatility risks, potentially leading to systemic risks. Based on this, the lawmaker called for such leveraged ETF products to be delisted in order to curb market risks.

The U.S. stock storage sector saw collective strength ahead of market open, with SanDisk leading gains by nearly 5%, followed by Western Digital and Micron Technology. Western Digital’s rise exceeded 5%, while SanDisk posted a gain of 4.81%. MicroStrategy, however, dropped over 4% due to massive impairment charges, contrasting sharply with the performance of the other storage stocks.

SK Hynix plans to list on U.S. stock markets through an IPO worth $29 billion, aiming to attract investors in the global AI memory chip sector. Meanwhile, the size of related leveraged ETFs has reached $19 billion, four times the average daily trading volume, indicating strong market interest in the stock. If approved, this listing plan will significantly alter the capital structure of the memory chip industry and may prompt a reevaluation of valuations across the entire semiconductor sector.

SK Hynix is pursuing one of the largest stock issuances globally, planning to pay investment banks a base underwriting fee of 0.5% of the total funds raised, or offer a performance-based bonus. The specific scale of the issuance remains undecided, and the related arrangements are still in the proposal stage, having not yet entered final execution.

Driven by positive developments in the semiconductor sector, South Korea’s KOSPI index initially declined before turning upward, ultimately surging 5% to close at 8,059 points. Market sentiment reversed, with SK Hynix’s shares rebounding sharply from an early-day drop of over 6%, posting a daily gain of more than 9% and leading the semiconductor sector; Samsung Electronics also rose by over 8%. Meanwhile, SK Hynix-related token SKHX saw $880 million in 24-hour trading volume on the Hyperliquid platform, indicating renewed investor interest.

SK Hynix’s shares tumbled by over 12% on a single trading day, closing at 2.24 million won, directly dragging down the South Korean KOSPI index by 7% during session. Affected by this, two 2x long-leverage ETFs tied to the company saw even steeper declines, with cumulative losses exceeding 30%; among them, the CSOP 2x long-leverage ETF dropped nearly 24% in one day. Despite the company’s announcement of plans to invest 100 trillion won to expand its NAND factory in Cheongju, market panic dominated, causing severe volatility in related derivatives.