On July 10, 2026, SK Hynix walked onto Nasdaq and broke every record in the room. The South Korean memory chipmaker raised $26.5 billion by selling 177.9 million American depositary receipts at $149 each, making it the largest share sale by a foreign company in US history.
The shares surged as much as 17% on their first day of trading.
But the story here is not just about a chip company going public. It is about what happens next: SK Hynix is expected to convert a portion of those dollars back into South Korean won, and that currency pipeline is already moving markets.
The won gets a tailwind it desperately needed
The South Korean won had been under pressure for months, grinding weaker against the dollar. Then SK Hynix priced its ADRs, and something shifted.
