South Korean chip maker SK hynix has priced a major US stock listing aimed at raising $26.5bn, making it one of the largest share sales in history. The company, a key supplier of advanced memory chips to Nvidia, has seen its profits surge amid the global rush to build AI datacentres, and the flotation reflects investor appetite for firms at the centre of the artificial intelligence boom. The listing comes despite recent turbulence in tech stocks over fears of overheated valuations and uncertainty about when vast AI spending will pay off.

SK hynix plans to issue around 18m shares on the Nasdaq via American depositary shares priced at $149.00 each, with the offering reportedly more than seven times oversubscribed. The sum falls short of SpaceX's record $75bn IPO last month but exceeds Saudi Aramco's 2019 debut and Alibaba's New York listing. The company's shares have climbed more than 220% this year in Seoul, and its market capitalisation passed $1tn in May, joining rivals Samsung and Micron in dominating the high-bandwidth memory market. Proceeds will fund new fabrication and packaging facilities in South Korea as the firm seeks to overtake Samsung on chip volume.