The Day SK Hynix Locked In Xiaomi as Its First LPDDR6 Customer, Its Stock Fell Below IPO Price

SK Hynix is set to supply China's Xiaomi with the first commercial shipment of LPDDR6, its next-generation low-power mobile DRAM, chip analyst Jukan reported on July 28, citing industry sources. With mass production starting in the second half of this year, SK Hynix would be first to land a customer in this product category. The same day, SK Hynix's Nasdaq-listed depositary receipts (ADR) fell below their IPO price. Worth asking why a customer win and a stock rout landed on the same day.

What LPDDR6 is, and why Xiaomi matters first

LPDDR6 is the next generation of low-power DRAM used in smartphones and tablets. SK Hynix finished developing it on a 1c process in March, claiming a 33% speed gain and more than 20% better power efficiency over LPDDR5X. The target market is on-device AI phones and tablets.

SK Hynix says it can't confirm specific customers, but reports already point to the chip landing in Xiaomi's next flagship phones.

Why the stock fell below its IPO price on this exact day

SK Hynix listed ADRs on Nasdaq on July 10, pricing the offering at $149 a share. It raised $26.5 billion, the largest US listing ever by a foreign company, and jumped 13% on debut. That stock fell as much as 10% intraday on July 27 and closed at $143.02. Two weeks after listing, it had dropped below its IPO price. On July 28, Korea's KOSPI sank more than 8%, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading for 20 minutes. SK Hynix's Korean shares fell over 11%, and Samsung Electronics dropped more than 9%.

KOSPI circuit breaker triggered as SK Hynix, Samsung tumble (TradingKey, 2026-07-28)

출처: tradingkey.com

Reports point to two overlapping causes. One is Nvidia's reported $250 billion guarantee for OpenAI's Ohio data center financing, which reignited worries about circular AI financing. The other is China. Homegrown DUV lithography tools entering mass production, combined with CXMT's 470% debut surge, revived fears that the memory chip competitive landscape is shifting.

What the original report leaves out: Xiaomi's other option

There's another reason to read this less as an unqualified win. CXMT, which already supplies Xiaomi with conventional DRAM, is chasing LPDDR6 too. It's in the sampling stage now and is targeting mass production in the same second half of this year as SK Hynix. Its speeds reach 12.8 gigabits per second, matching flagship-level specs. CXMT already supplies memory to Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud, and is in testing with Apple. Xiaomi picking SK Hynix as its first LPDDR6 supplier doesn't mean that slot stays exclusive for long.

CXMT begins LPDDR6 sampling, targets H2 2026 mass production (Gizmochina, 2026-07-20)

출처: gizmochina.com

The two stories that broke the same day point in different directions. One shows a technology lead. The other shows the market's doubt about how long that lead survives.

What decides this

The question comes down to one thing. Does the Xiaomi LPDDR6 win mark a durable SK Hynix lead, or a short head start before CXMT catches up. If CXMT hits mass production on schedule this second half and starts supplying LPDDR6 to Xiaomi and Huawei, this 'first customer' title loses most of its weight. If CXMT's production slips on yield problems or delays, SK Hynix will have bought itself real time in this market. What's certain right now is that in the same week this win was reported, SK Hynix's stock closed below its IPO price alongside a KOSPI circuit breaker. Technology and stock price didn't point the same direction this week.