SK Hynix’s $26.5B Nasdaq debut sets a record and gives the South Korean won a lift

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. The won strengthened from around 1,501.4 per dollar on July 10 to approximately 1,486 per dollar shortly after, hitting its strongest level in two months. South Korean authorities have been encouraging this playbook explicitly. Government officials have been urging major exporters, including SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, to repatriate their foreign currency earnings rather than leaving them parked overseas. Why a chip compa...