Shares of SK Hynix fell sharply in early Seoul trading on Monday as investors locked in gains following the artificial intelligence memory chipmaker’s strong Nasdaq debut, while concerns over earnings expectations weighed on sentiment.
The South Korean chipmaker dropped as much as 8.2% after its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) surged 12.8% on their first trading day in the US on Friday. SK Hynix raised more than US$26 billion through the listing, with ADRs priced at US$149 each before opening 14% above the offer price at US$170.
In Seoul, SK Hynix’s decline came alongside broader market weakness, with the benchmark KOSPI index down 2.8% as of 0057 GMT.
Ryu Young-ho, senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said investors were taking profits following the completion of the Nasdaq listing, while caution over SK Hynix’s second-quarter earnings outlook also affected sentiment.
“Investors had expected shipments of SK Hynix’s HBM4 chips to increase from the second quarter, but that increase does not appear to have materialised at scale,” Ryu said.
He added that investors had also lowered earnings expectations as SK Hynix, which has greater exposure to the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market compared with rival Samsung Electronics, may benefit less from recent price increases in conventional DRAM chips.
SK Hynix remains a key player in the AI semiconductor market, leading the HBM segment with a 58% revenue share in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint Research data. Samsung Electronics and US-based Micron Technology each held a 21% share.
HBM chips are widely used in artificial intelligence systems developed for major technology companies including Nvidia and Alphabet’s Google.
