South Korean chip giant SK Hynix has raised a record-breaking $26.5bn ahead of its Wall Street debut amid soaring demand for semiconductors used in AI. SK Hynix said on Friday that it had sold 177.9 million American depositary shares (ADS) at $149 each ahead of its listing on the New York-based Nasdaq stock exchange. SK Hynix's 177.9 million ADSs are equivalent to 18 million ordinary shares. SK Hynix's initial public offering (IPO) marks the largest-ever listing by a foreign company in the US, surpassing Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's $25bn debut in 2014. The listing also ranks as the second-largest globally, after SpaceX's record-breaking $85.7bn Nasdaq listing in June.

South Korean computer chip maker SK Hynix has raised $26.5bn (£19.8bn) in its New York share offering, marking the largest ever listing by a foreign firm in the US. The company, a key supplier to artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia, said on Thursday that it had sold 177.9 million American depositary shares for $149 each. The shares are set to begin trading on Friday on the Nasdaq. In May, SK Hynix saw its market value top $1tn in its home country, lifted by the boom in demand for AI chips. Its share price has more than tripled in South Korea this year, which along with Samsung Electronics has helped boost the benchmark Kospi index by more than 70% over the same period.

Image caption, Samsung is also one of the world's leading smartphone makers South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics says it expects to post a 19-fold jump in its profits, driven by global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips. The company forecast that it made 89tn won (£44bn; $58bn) between the start of April and the end of June, marking its third record quarterly operating profits in a row. Major South Korean firms like Samsung release forecasts of their earnings ahead of official detailed reports to help guide investors. Samsung's latest forecast, released on Tuesday ahead of its full results due later in July, comes as demand for semiconductors continues to outstrip supplies - which has pushed up prices . Samsung said in the preview, known as earnings guidance, that it brought in around 171tn won of sales during the quarter, more than double the amount for the same period last year.

South Korea has laid out a sweeping industrial strategy focused on semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence projects as President Lee Jae Myung pledges to cement overwhelming industry leadership with investments of hundreds of billions of dollars over several years. Flanked by the heads of the world's two biggest memory chipmakers, Lee cast the initiative on Monday as a "great leap forward" centred on the "triple axis" of semiconductors, physical AI and data centres. The world's two largest memory chipmakers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, will invest 800 trillion won ($518bn) with suppliers to build two new chip fabrication sites each in South Korea's southwest, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said. Lee said the country's southwestern city of Gwangju and South Jeolla province will also invest 5 trillion to 20 trillion won ($3.2bn to $13bn) in the projects. Kim said a further 81 trillion won ($52.5bn) is expected to be invested for a chip-packaging cluster in the Chungcheong area near Seoul.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech on June 25. SEOUL - South Korea is set to unveil three "mega-projects" to fuel its next growth phase, including a new semiconductor hub in the southwest that local media say could attract investments by Samsung and SK spanning hundreds of billions of dollars over several years. The announcement would mark President Lee Jae Myung's boldest push yet to align South Korea's AI and chip ambitions with his pledge to narrow regional disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan area. Lee will preside over the event, framed as a national "great leap" due to be unveiled around 2 p.m., his office said, with ministries covering industry, science, climate and transport set to outline policy support. Samsung Electronics and SK are expected to present investment plans, and their chairmen, Jay Y. Lee and Chey Tae-won, are among business leaders tipped to attend by local media. Representatives of other firms including LG Electronics, HD Hyundai Robotics, Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Water Resources Corp. are also attending, Lee's office said.

People visit the Delta Electronics booth during the annual Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 3, 2026. Thailand's stock market is having the best year among Southeast Asian peers, as investors discover an unlikely source of exposure to the global artificial-intelligence boom. Much of that gain has come from Delta Electronics (Thailand). The maker of power systems for AI data centers has surged more than 80% this year and became Thailand's first $100 billion company, large enough to be worth more than the next four largest Thai stocks combined. While the country lacks the semiconductor champions of Taiwan or South Korea, investors are increasingly recognizing its role in supplying the infrastructure behind AI. "Thailand isn't a pure AI market, but its exposure to data centers, electronics, power systems and digital infrastructure gives investors a new way to view Thai equities beyond the traditional tourism, banks and domestic consumption cycle," Bloomberg Intelligence Strategist Sufianti said in a note. Delta's rise is the clearest evidence of that shift.

Plus: SK Hynix has overtaken Samsung as South Korea's most valuable company. I'm under the iconic fjords of Norway to visit what will soon become the world's longest and deepest subsea road tunnel--an exceptional engineering feat that will carry drivers deep beneath the North Sea. I'm here to understand how you make a 16.6-mile highway that sits 1,280 feet below the sea at its deepest point. And also--at a time when it can feel hard to get anything done--to reassure myself that ambitious engineering is still possible. That we can still make things. Step inside Norway's Rogfast tunnel and see how engineers are making it happen .

The Download: the first brain implant power user and South Korea's AI obsession Plus: The US says it restricted Anthropic AI over foreign intelligence risks. This man with ALS is the first "power user" of a brain implant that lets him speak Casey Harrell has had a set of electrodes embedded in his brain for almost three years. Harrell, who has ALS and is paralyzed, first used his brain-computer interface (BCI) to "speak" in 2023. Since then, he's clocked thousands of hours of use. Harrell can now use the device largely independently. His team has added new features to it, and he also uses it to surf the web and perform his job.

Why do South Koreans love AI so much? From eldercare robots to humanoid monks, South Koreans just can't get enough of AI. When I landed in Seoul after a grueling 12-hour flight from San Francisco, I walked through an unmanned immigration checkpoint, where a machine scanned my face and passport. On the subway home, people were glued to their phones (powered by flawless 5G even underground), as we raced past platforms lined with LED screens of ads celebrating K-pop idols ' birthdays. When I got off the station in Gangnam, a cartoon-eyed robot on wheels was waiting patiently at a crosswalk to deliver someone's dinner. Internet cafés dotted the sidewalks, crammed with teenagers playing computer games, maybe hoping to become the next legendary pro gamer .

Bang Chun-ja, a 78-year-old South Korean woman living alone, holding Hyodol, an artificial intelligence-powered healthcare doll designed for the elderly, during an interview at her home in Yongin in April. Yongin, South Korea - In her tiny apartment in South Korea where she lives alone, 78-year-old Bang Chun-ja spends her days with a childlike artificial intelligence-powered doll she says she prefers to people. The doll greets Bang when she returns home, sings to her when she feels bored, reminds her not to skip meals or medication -- helping her maintain a routine -- and tells her it loves her. Bang has limited contact with her grown-up daughter, and fell into severe depression after major back surgery, spending hours alone staring at the ceiling in pain. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.