SK Hynix Shares Crash After Record-Breaking Nasdaq IPO

The benchmark KOSPI index plunged nearly 9 percent on July 13, 2026, triggering a 20-minute market-wide circuit breaker as technology stocks crashed. SK Hynix led the decline with a record 15.4 percent single-day drop in Seoul, coinciding with a more than 10 percent fall for Samsung Electronics. The rout followed SK Hynix's massive Nasdaq debut on July 10, where it raised approximately $26.5 billion through American depositary receipts—the largest U.S. share sale by a foreign company since 2014.

Analysts attributed the volatility to a combination of profit-taking and a Korea Investment & Securities report suggesting second-quarter operating profits might miss consensus estimates due to slow price increases for high-bandwidth memory. Broader investor anxiety regarding the sustainability of AI infrastructure spending and geopolitical tensions involving military strikes between the United States and Iran near the Strait of Hormuz further pressured the market. The sell-off extended to Japanese firms and U.S. chipmakers including Micron and Western Digital.

President Lee Jae Myung and the South Korean central bank intervened to reassure investors that the AI semiconductor super-cycle has not yet peaked. Markets partially recovered on July 14, with the KOSPI closing 0.73 percent higher as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares climbed 3.34 percent and 3.69 percent respectively. This recovery occurred despite continued instability in the Strait of Hormuz and ongoing concerns over AI sector valuations.