SK Hynix just pulled off the largest first-time US share sale by a foreign company, and Nasdaq’s president says the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since.
Nelson Griggs, president of Nasdaq, revealed that SK Hynix’s mammoth American depositary receipt listing has triggered a surge of interest from other international companies considering US IPOs or depositary receipts. The South Korean memory chip maker priced its ADRs at roughly $149, raising approximately $26.5 billion in proceeds from 17.79 million shares. That figure eclipses Alibaba’s 2014 IPO, which previously held the crown for largest foreign debut on a US exchange.
The offering was more than seven times oversubscribed, which in financial terms means investors wanted to buy seven dollars’ worth of shares for every one dollar available.
Nasdaq’s record-breaking first half
SK Hynix’s blockbuster listing caps off what Griggs described as the strongest first half in Nasdaq’s history, with $129.3 billion raised across the exchange in the first six months of 2026. Nasdaq hosted seven of the year’s ten largest IPOs during that stretch.
