SpaceX in Nasdaq 100, SK Hynix's $28B Record Debut

SpaceX’s post-IPO story keeps expanding: the company has joined the Nasdaq 100 and landed in retirement accounts, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix pulled off the second-largest share sale in history. Elsewhere, Meta’s custom AI chip and Micron’s memory shortage narrative are adding new texture to the AI infrastructure trade.

Key points

• SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 after Nasdaq changed its listing rules ahead of the company’s June 12 IPO, giving retirement account holders passive exposure to the stock.
• SK Hynix raised $28 billion on Nasdaq, eclipsing Alibaba’s 2014 record and ranking second only to SpaceX in global share-sale history; the company debuted as SKHY at a $1 trillion valuation.
• Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra called AI-driven memory demand “unprecedented,” noting data centers account for more than 50% of need, as the company commits $250 billion in investment.
• Cerebras is targeting Europe with 200 megawatts of AI compute planned by 2027, pitching itself as a sovereign AI alternative in markets where Nvidia currently powers 90% of announced AI factory projects.
• Tencent is in talks to become the largest shareholder in AI startup Manus after Beijing ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of the company.

SpaceX in the Nasdaq 100: what it means for ordinary investors

The Nasdaq changed its rules ahead of SpaceX’s historic offering, and the consequence is now arriving in practice: the company sits inside the Nasdaq 100, which means any investor holding a QQQ ETF or a retirement fund benchmarked to that index has automatic exposure to SpaceX stock.

The IPO itself priced at $135 on June 12 and raised $85.7 billion. The stock ran to $225 in its first week before pulling back to around $160. The mandatory quiet period for underwriters expired on July 7, and analyst notes began appearing immediately. Morgan Stanley has already signaled a price target. The inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 means price moves in SpaceX now carry index-level consequences, something investors in broad tech ETFs should keep in mind.

On the competitive side, FCC Chair Brendan Carr described himself as “bullish” on SpaceX’s satellite-to-cell ambitions, noting the FCC is “open-minded” about direct wireless deals. That commentary came as AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) headed toward its worst week in over a month, suggesting the market is pricing in sharper competition from SpaceX and Amazon in that segment.

SK Hynix’s record raise reframes the HBM trade

SK Hynix’s $28 billion Nasdaq listing is significant beyond the headline number. The company controls roughly 60% of the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, the specialized chips that sit alongside Nvidia’s GPUs inside AI data centers. Its debut at a $1 trillion valuation puts it on a short list of semiconductor companies at that scale.

The listing also comes as South Korean stocks posted a 2.52% gain on Friday, driven by semiconductor shares following overnight gains on Wall Street. That broad chip rally, combined with SK Hynix’s record capital raise, reflects how central memory has become to the AI trade. Micron, the primary U.S.-listed HBM competitor, is now the natural comparison point. CEO Mehrotra’s “unprecedented demand” framing and the company’s $250 billion investment commitment suggest Micron is leaning into the same thesis.

Meta’s Iris chip and what it signals for Broadcom

Meta’s plan to put its custom AI chip, code-named Iris, into production in September was first reported yesterday. What deserves additional attention is the supply chain: Meta is working with Broadcom on design and TSMC on production, and the goal is to double computing capacity by next year while reducing dependence on external suppliers.

This fits directly into Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis’s thesis on Broadcom. Curtis reiterated a Buy rating and $550 price target on AVGO on June 30, citing improving AI chip business prospects. Broadcom’s model, designing custom silicon for hyperscalers like Meta and Google rather than selling off-the-shelf GPUs, keeps it structurally relevant even as those customers build more in-house capability. The Iris production timeline gives that thesis a concrete near-term datapoint.

Cerebras and the sovereign AI angle

Cerebras, which raised $5.5 billion in its IPO, is now targeting Europe with 200 megawatts of AI compute capacity planned by 2027. France and Nordic data centers are slated to come online in 2026. The pitch is explicitly geopolitical: Cerebras frames itself as a sovereign AI alternative for governments and enterprises that want compute infrastructure not reliant on U.S. chip supply chains dominated by Nvidia.

Whether Cerebras can execute at that scale remains to be seen, and the company competes in a market where Nvidia currently accounts for 90% of announced AI factory projects in Europe. But the sovereign AI argument has political traction in the EU, and if Cerebras secures government-backed contracts, that could provide a more predictable revenue base than competing for commercial workloads head-on with Nvidia.

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