Wall Street AI IPO Honeymoon Phase Ends as All Four Key Names Come Under Pressure
Claire Weston
SK Hynix, SpaceX, Cerebras, and CoreWeave have all pulled back sharply after post-listing euphoria faded, as the market shifts from sentiment-driven premiums back to fundamentals and demand durability.
SK Hynix: the biggest-ever foreign U.S. listing — so why did it drop in week one?
SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion via Nasdaq ADRs — American depositary receipts, essentially proxy shares traded in the U.S. — setting a record for any foreign company listing stateside.
Shares opened at $170 on day one but closed Monday at $152.35, a 9% single-day drop, barely 2% above the offer price.
Back in Korea, the local-listed stock fell as much as 15% that day — a record single-session decline — before rebounding 4% on Tuesday.
This means → doubts about chip-demand sustainability hit the tape all at once ahead of earnings season. No listing, however large, is immune to a sentiment unwind.
SpaceX: why did retail investors get trapped on entry?
After completing what has been called the largest IPO ever, SpaceX stock peaked 58% above the offer price on day three.
It then drifted lower, closing Monday at $139.14 — just above the $135 offer price, below the $150 first-day open.
This means → early institutional and insider holders still sit on gains, but retail buyers who entered after the listing are most likely underwater. In plain terms = the money was made by those already on the bus; latecomers became the exit liquidity.
Cerebras and CoreWeave: what happened after the first-day doubles?
AI chip maker Cerebras surged as much as 109% on its debut, then shed nearly 50%, leaving the stock stranded between its offer price and first-day open.
Data-center operator CoreWeave traced an even more extreme arc: a muted March 2025 debut, then a nearly 400% rally to a mid-June 2025 peak, followed by a roughly 55% slide from that high.
This means → timing was everything. Early investors who sold near the peak locked in outsized gains; those who bought at the top are sitting on heavy losses.
What pattern do all four names share?
The four stocks followed a strikingly similar script: sentiment-fueled premiums on debut, then a broad pullback once the excitement faded, with the market reverting to fundamentals.
This reflects a core tension in AI new issues: valuations are anchored to the assumption that AI demand will keep growing at a high rate. The moment that assumption wavers, the premium gets squeezed out.
In plain terms = AI earnings season is approaching. Whether these stocks can back their valuations with actual results is the key test of whether this correction is over.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.