Top Stories This Morning: SK Hynix Raised a Record $26.5 Billion; Asian Stocks Soared

South Korean memory manufacturer SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion in the largest-ever ADR offering by a foreign company in U.S. history. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has formed five expert groups involving representatives from the business community, academia, and former central bank executives to review approaches to monetary policy. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of July 10.

South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix has issued $26.5 billion in American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). This marks a record for initial public offerings by foreign companies in the U.S., according to Bloomberg. The company sold 177.9 million ADRs at $149 each—a 3% premium to the price of its common stock in Seoul. The offering surpassed Alibaba’s U.S. debut and became the third-largest listing in global history.

Demand for the securities was nearly seven times the supply and approached $200 billion. SK Hynix will use the funds raised to expand its investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure amid high demand for HBM memory, a market in which the company holds a 57% global market share by revenue. The ADRs will begin trading on Nasdaq on July 10 under the ticker SKHYV, which will change to SKHY on July 13.

Asian stock markets rose sharply on Friday. Investors focused on artificial intelligence and ignored the escalating conflict between the U.S. and Iran, according to Reuters. South Korea’s KOSPI index rose more than 5%, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.7%.

Chipmakers were the main driver of growth. The day before, the U.S. Nasdaq index closed the session with a significant gain after Micron announced plans to invest more than $250 billion in the U.S. by 2035. Against this backdrop, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index rose 3%. In South Korea, SK Hynix shares rose 1%, while Samsung Electronics shares rose 3%.

“I’ve been following the news from the Middle East, and the situation there looks alarming. However, investors are currently showing remarkable resilience in the face of these risks—the tech sector is once again driving the markets higher,” said Nick Twidale, chief market strategist at ATFX Global in Sydney.

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh announced the composition of five expert groups that will review the regulator’s operations, according to CNBC. They will analyze the Fed’s communications, balance sheet management policy, data handling, productivity and the labor market, as well as its approach to assessing inflation. According to Warsh, recommendations based on the findings could be presented as early as this year.

The groups included venture capitalist Mark Andressen, former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan, former Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Greg Mankiw, as well as representatives from academia and the business community. Their task is to independently assess the Fed’s current approaches and propose changes to monetary policy, including issues related to inflation, productivity, and artificial intelligence.

OpenAI’s Director of Product and Business Development, Fiji Simo, has announced that she will be leaving the company to focus on recovering from a flare-up of a chronic illness, according to CNBC. In 2019, she was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Simo has been on medical leave since April of this year, and OpenAI President Greg Brockman has been temporarily filling her role. After her departure, she will remain a part-time advisor to the company.

Simo joined OpenAI in May 2025 to lead the development of its applied business. Previously, she was CEO of Instacart, where she took the company public, and before that, she held leadership roles at Meta for more than ten years.

Lancium, an American energy infrastructure developer involved in the construction of the OpenAI and Oracle data center in Texas, is in talks with major technology companies about selling a minority stake, according to The Information. According to sources, Nvidia, among others, has expressed interest in the deal, and the company’s potential valuation could reach $7–10 billion, including debt. Lancium previously raised $500 million from Blackstone and an additional $600 million in debt financing.

The company is developing sites with ready access to power grids and the electrical infrastructure needed for AI data centers. Sources also note that Anthropic explored the possibility of investing in the company, which reflects AI developers’ desire to gain greater control over computing infrastructure and power supply, the publication reports.

Cursor, a developer of AI programming tools, is creating a versatile AI agent—codenamed “Sand”—that will be able to not only perform code development tasks but also respond to emails, work with spreadsheets, and assist with office tasks, according to The Information. Development of the project began after the company leased computing power from SpaceX AI in April.

The development is taking place amid preparations for SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition of Cursor in the second half of 2026.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index rose 0.7%, while the Nikkei 225 rose 1.7%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.9%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index rose 0.5%.

— In South Korea, the KOSPI index rose 5.1%, while the KOSDAQ gained 5.7%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3%.

— S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite futures were down 0.2%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.1%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor