New York, July 11, 2026, 06:42 EDT
SK hynix NASDAQ:SKHY kicked off a nearly $30 billion U.S. listing on Friday as traders leaned into the AI memory story, but chipmakers and chip designers moved in separate directions. The sale brought in $26.5 billion from 177.9 million American depositary receipts at $149 apiece. Shares finished at $168.01, putting the U.S. debut’s value around $29.9 billion.
The debut showed investors didn’t see all AI chip stocks the same way. An unweighted basket of Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA, Broadcom NASDAQ:AVGO and Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ:AMD was up 9.0% from the last U.S. close on July 2 through Friday. Micron Technology NASDAQ:MU and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co NYSE:TSM averaged only 0.2% over that stretch. That’s an 8.8 percentage point gap.
| Security | Main role | July 2 close | July 10 close | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcom | Makes networking and custom semis | $360.45 | $399.97 | +11.0% |
| Nvidia | Sells AI chips | $194.83 | $210.96 | +8.3% |
| AMD | Processor maker | $517.82 | $557.89 | +7.7% |
| PHLX Semiconductor Index | Chip sector benchmark | 12,626.2 | 12,967.2 | +2.7% |
| Micron | Makes memory chips | $975.56 | $979.30 | +0.4% |
| TSMC | Big contract chip fab | $434.16 | $434.11 | 0.0% |
Figures reflect the difference between July 10 and July 2, the last U.S. trading day.
Broadcom jumped 3.7% Monday after the company and Apple NASDAQ:AAPL said they will keep their custom-chip deal going through 2031. The PHLX index added 2.2% on the session. Jake Dollarhide, CEO at Longbow Asset Management, said the market is “leaving a lot of people out.” Reuters
Micron’s update got a mixed response. Shares gained 4.5% Thursday after the company raised its U.S. investment target through 2035 to over $250 billion, up from $200 billion, and said customers had secured $22 billion in memory supply. But by week’s end, Micron was up just 0.4%, lagging the designer basket by about 8.6 points.
The contrast here doesn’t mean investors were saying no to memory. Access may have played a bigger role than another pledge on capital spending. High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, stacks fast chips next to AI processors to push data over quickly. “The leader in high bandwidth memory globally for the first time,” said Janus Henderson’s Richard Clode on the listing. Giuseppe Sette at Reflexivity called it “the purest large-cap way for U.S. investors to own the AI-memory theme.” Reuters
SK hynix is closest to Micron among U.S.-listed memory makers, so the listing lets investors compare them directly. “SK Hynix leads on share and is closer to Nvidia, Micron has better power efficiency, strong U.S. exposure, and good momentum from third place,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of Futurum Group. The deal drew demand more than seven times the available shares, according to a source. Reuters
Chief Executive Kwak Noh-jung sounded the alarm on supply. “We forecast that next year will be the worst year in the industry’s history from the supply perspective,” he told Reuters. Kwak also said customer demand may stay above SK hynix’s capacity past 2030. Reuters
The sector still hasn’t recovered from June’s break. PHLX closed Friday at 12,967.2, just above its 10-week moving average of about 12,675. But that’s still 11.4% under the record from June 22. The index jumped 101% in the first half, the biggest gain since Reuters started tracking in 1994.
Next week puts the capacity story to the test as earnings roll out. TSMC will deliver its delayed June sales on Monday, then second-quarter numbers on Thursday. ASML Holding NASDAQ:ASML is set to report Wednesday. The company makes advanced lithography machines for silicon wafers.
| Date | Investor test | Confirmed benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| July 13 | TSMC June sales | Typhoon stoppage pushed release from July 10 |
| July 15 | ASML Q2 earnings | Outlook is €8.4 billion–€9.0 billion sales and 51%–52% gross margin |
| July 16 | TSMC Q2 results | Guidance: $39 billion–$40.2 billion in revenue |
Gross margin measures how much of sales stays after covering direct production costs.
The earnings hurdle is steep. Tech sector profits are forecast to jump 65.5% in the second quarter, LSEG IBES data shows. Bruce Zaro at Granite Wealth Management said “those earnings bars … have been set at a higher level now.” If TSMC’s sales or ASML’s orders and margin view don’t back up the current capacity surge, investors might start to see today’s chip shortage as tomorrow’s glut and unwind this week’s rally. Reuters
The best sign will be in relative moves. If Micron, TSMC, and ASML all jump after results, traders are leaning into the whole AI hardware trade. But if Nvidia, Broadcom and AMD lead again this week, then the market is still sticking to chip designers with loyal clients, not just the players with more capacity.
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