Retail-trader `bottleneck bros’ eyeing AI supply chain can’t wait for SK Hynix options
SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, center, SK Hynix Inc. chairman and chief executive officer Kwak Noh-jung, center left, and SK Hynix Inc. chairman Koh Seung-beom, center right, during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, United States, on Friday, July 10, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SK Hynix The options are set to launch on Tuesday and are likely to be a huge success thanks to record retail trading activity and ordinary people trying to find the next big AI success story.
The South Korean semiconductor sensation sold nearly $27 billion in shares in its U.S. market debut on Friday, fitting right into the type of trading retail investors are demanding: suppliers of technology and tools needed to power the AI boom.
And these retail traders bring some serious firepower.
According to a July 7 report from Citadel Securities, retail traded an average of $6.7 billion in option premiums per day last month; This was 15% above the previous record in May and 65% above last year’s average. Semiconductor trading generated more than $1 billion in revenue per day, the most popular theme.
SK Hynix’s memory business reminds most retail tech traders: Micron – perfect example of the supply chain bottleneck thesis, rising almost 1,000% last year before a 23% selloff since its late-June high.
“People are specifically about to buy SK Hynix because Nvidia has made it clear that they’re going to need a persistent memory supply,” said Gav Blaxberg, founder and CEO of Wolf Financial, a sprawling marketplace with idea-sharing events that include X, YouTube and podcasts. “There is a demand supercycle and there are only a few companies that can supply at that scale.”
More sophisticated than ever before thanks to open source technology and artificial intelligence brokers, the latest obsession of ordinary investors is scanning the stock market for companies supplying the computational revolution with power, memory, or anything else that could be squeezed by intense demand.
“They are the bottleneck brothers,” said David Dziekanski, founder of ETF shop Quantify Funds.
Their inspiration: Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old former OpenAI researcher whose stock-picking prowess turned into a $20 billion hedge fund and earned him the nickname “AI Nostradamus.”
Investors are literally beholden to Aschenbrenner’s predictions, tracking 13-F and 13-G filings for new positions and sharing ideas through copy apps like Autopilot and Dub, which allow investors to participate in the predictions of popular users.
“Leopold is like the Bill Ackman of these bottleneck brethren in the AI field, trying to figure out the next leg of the AI story,” Dziekanski said in a call. “Everybody wants to know what these guys’ next trade is going to be.”
SK Hynix US shares
Of course, SK Hynix options may have some competition in popularity from single-stock leveraged ETFs, where volumes are rising rapidly. At least 10 ETF issuers have registered to list the only exchange-traded funds tracking SK Hynix, Reuters reported last week.
The options will begin trading on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson from Cboe, and as of this writing are still held by Options Clearing Corp. It was waiting to be approved by.
