SK Hynix's $28 Billion Nasdaq Debut Marks the Largest IPO Since SpaceX — and the Pipeline Is Getting Deeper

The US IPO market’s second half is opening with a deal so large it would have dominated any normal year on its own. SK hynix, the South Korean memory chip giant that supplies high-bandwidth memory to Nvidia’s AI data-center accelerators, set terms on July 6 for a $28.1 billion Nasdaq listing — 177.9 million American Depositary Shares at $158.14, the as-converted close of its KRX shares{{cite:776fc2956fd5}}. The bookbuild closed early amid demand that covered the offering multiple times over, drawing roughly 1,000 institutional investors to the marketing call{{cite:cdaf201607c8}}. Cornerstone investors Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management, and Situational Awareness Partners pre-committed $7 billion, or 24.9% of the deal{{cite:776fc2956fd5}}.

At the proposed price, SK hynix would command a market capitalization of roughly $1.2 trillion, making it the second-largest share sale in history behind only SpaceX’s $86 billion offering in June{{cite:776fc2956fd5}}{{cite:bfea935d0088}}. The deal is expected to price the week of July 6, with underwriters closing US books at 4 p.m. Eastern Time and finalizing allocations after the South Korean market close{{cite:cdaf201607c8}}.

A First Half That Rewrote the Record Books

SK hynix’s arrival is not an isolated event. Through July 2, the US market had already hosted 194 IPOs raising $155.8 billion{{cite:bfea935d0088}}. SpaceX alone accounted for $86.2 billion of that total, but even excluding the largest listing of all time, the remaining $69.9 billion of IPO volume was more than double the $31.6 billion printed in the same period of 2025{{cite:bfea935d0088}}. Dealogic’s IPO Health Index for the Americas — which blends issuance volume with aftermarket performance — is now near its post-2021 highs{{cite:bfea935d0088}}.

Momentum has continued past SpaceX. Nineteen IPOs have priced on US exchanges since that deal, raising a cumulative $6.9 billion, including Italian digital holding company Bending Spoons ($1.68 billion) and UK industrial manufacturer Doncasters Group ($1 billion){{cite:bfea935d0088}}.

The Pipeline Behind SK Hynix

The deal flow for the second half is unusually deep and concentrated in AI-adjacent infrastructure:

Csquare, a Brookfield-backed data-center operator with 64 facilities across the US and UK, set terms for 50 million shares at $23–$27, targeting a fully diluted valuation of up to $4.18 billion{{cite:18fe8b74df6a}}. Jersey Mike’s, the Blackstone-owned sandwich chain with nearly 3,300 locations, publicly filed its S-1 on July 2 under the ticker JMKE on the NYSE, with same-store sales up 50% between 2020 and 2025{{cite:792f9aeea3a4}}. Bloomberg has reported the chain could raise more than $1 billion at a valuation above $12 billion{{cite:821baf9a4857}}.

Anthropic confidentially submitted its draft S-1 on June 1, following a $65 billion funding round that valued the company at roughly $965 billion{{cite:adefec19bbc5}}. OpenAI filed confidentially a week later, on June 8{{cite:adefec19bbc5}}. ECM bankers expect Anthropic to come to market first, potentially in the September–October window, though OpenAI may delay into 2027{{cite:bfea935d0088}}.

The Supply Test: Lockups and Secondaries

The IPO market’s ability to keep absorbing new paper faces two near-term stress tests.

SpaceX lockup expirations. SpaceX’s June IPO left only about 4–5% of its $2.1 trillion market capitalization in the freely trading float{{cite:258c6e92ff78}}. The company structured an unusually phased lockup schedule — rather than a standard 180-day cliff, insiders get incremental release valves beginning in July, with three major unlock events clustered in August that could bring the tradeable float to roughly 37%{{cite:258c6e92ff78}}. SpaceX’s first listed earnings report, expected in late July or early August, coincides with the earliest lockup expiries{{cite:bfea935d0088}}. As one ECM banker warned: “If SpaceX starts to trade down, that could close the door for other AI issuers”{{cite:bfea935d0088}}.

Rivian’s dilutive raise. Rivian Automotive (RIVN) priced a 75 million-share underwritten offering at $15.50 per share on July 8, raising approximately $1.16 billion in gross proceeds{{cite:fe21f394de95}}. The stock fell 18% on July 7 when the offering was announced, before pricing{{cite:fe21f394de95}}. Rivian also pre-released preliminary Q2 revenue guidance of $1.55–$1.65 billion alongside the raise{{cite:fe21f394de95}}. The deal underscores that the follow-on market remains open for capital-hungry companies — but at a cost to existing shareholders.

Other secondaries this week illustrate the breadth of the follow-on window. French biotech Abivax (ABVX) priced an oversubscribed, upsized $800 million ADS offering at $125 per share on July 1, with underwriters fully exercising their option to bring gross proceeds to $920 million{{cite:a124010c8156}}. FuelCell Energy (FCEL) announced the upsize and pricing of a 10.7 million-share offering on July 7{{cite:a124010c8156}}.

Europe Tells a Different Story

The contrast with European ECM is stark. Franco-German tank manufacturer KNDS postponed its IPO at the start of July after investors demanded a discount of at least 30% to peer valuations, which the family shareholders were unwilling to accept{{cite:bfea935d0088}}. Dealogic’s IPO Health Index for EMEA remains near its post-2021 nadir, the mirror image of the Americas{{cite:bfea935d0088}}.

The structural diagnosis from bankers is consistent: Europe relies on a smaller, more selective investor base of mutual funds and hedge funds, with limited retail participation. “Recent reforms to facilitate listings in Europe are great to speed up listing preparations, but we now need to encourage pension funds and more retail investors,” one banker close to the KNDS deal said{{cite:bfea935d0088}}. Until that changes, European issuers face a persistent discount requirement that American rivals operating in a deeper, FOMO-driven market do not.

What to Watch Next

1. SK hynix final pricing and first-day trade. Books closed Wednesday US time; pricing guidance is expected after the Korean market close Thursday, with final allocations in US hours{{cite:cdaf201607c8}}. The deal is a pure ADR — no new primary capital is raised, so the proceeds go to selling shareholders — meaning the key signal is aftermarket demand, not use of proceeds.

2. SpaceX first earnings report (late July–early August). This arrives as the first tranche of insider lockups expires. A disappointment here would compress the valuation window for every AI-infrastructure issuer behind it, including SK hynix itself, which trades at a premium partly justified by AI compute demand{{cite:bfea935d0088}}{{cite:258c6e92ff78}}.

3. Csquare and Jersey Mike’s pricing. Both are roadshow-stage and could price within weeks. Csquare tests whether private-equity-backed data-center capacity can command a public premium; Jersey Mike’s is a PE-exit deal at scale, with Blackstone targeting one of nine portfolio-company listings this year{{cite:792f9aeea3a4}}.

4. Anthropic’s public S-1 filing. The confidential submission is three weeks old. A public filing would signal a September–October listing window and set the terms for the next trillion-dollar-tier AI IPO — with OpenAI’s timing likely keyed to Anthropic’s reception{{cite:adefec19bbc5}}{{cite:bfea935d0088}}.

5. Memory-chip secondary effects. SK hynix’s KRX-listed shares have been under pressure during the bookbuild, with the stock down 5.7% as the offering absorbed attention{{cite:cdaf201607c8}}. If the Nasdaq listing draws significant US demand, the arb dynamic between the ADR and the KRX share could create short-term pricing dislocations in both directions.

The base case is that the US market absorbs SK hynix cleanly — oversubscription at this scale is a strong leading indicator — and the pipeline continues through the summer. The 40% scenario worth watching is the SpaceX lockup cliff: if the first wave of insider selling coincides with a soft earnings print, the narrative that has supported every AI-adjacent listing since June could crack, and the queue behind SK hynix would face a very different reception.