The AI memory leader’s shares slumped in Seoul as investors booked profits following its Nasdaq debut and growing caution over second-quarter earnings.
SK Hynix shares fell more than 15% on Monday, marking their biggest one-day decline on record, as investors rushed to book profits after the company’s Nasdaq debut last week and turned cautious about near-term earnings, according to Reuters.
The sell-off, along with losses in Samsung Electronics, pushed South Korea’s KOSPI down about 9%, triggering a 20-minute trading halt. The dip came despite continued optimism around long-term demand for AI memory chips.
Last week, SK Hynix raised more than $26 billion through the sale of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), priced at $149 each. The ADRs closed their first trading day up 12.8%, after opening 14% above the offer price.
“The current memory upcycle is tracking substantially stronger than expected, but our base case continues to assume normalisation in cycle dynamics, limiting upside at current levels,” said Lorraine Tan, director at Morningstar.
According to Reuters, analysts said investors were also concerned that shipments of SK Hynix‘s high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) chips had not yet increased at the pace the market had expected. They added that SK Hynix, with its heavier exposure to HBM chips, could benefit less than Samsung from the recent recovery in conventional DRAM prices.
Counterpoint Research estimates SK Hynix held a 58% share of the HBM market in the first quarter, ahead of Samsung and Micron, which each held 21%. HBM chips are widely used in AI systems powered by companies such as Nvidia and Google.
