Retail-trader 'bottleneck bros' eyeing AI supply chain can't wait for SK Hynix options
For many of those retail tech traders, SK Hynix's memory business reminds them of Micron – the paragon of the supply-chain bottleneck thesis.
MikeTyes
Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, center, Kwak Noh-jung, president and chief executive officer of SK Hynix Inc., center left, and Koh Seung-beom, chairman of SK Hynix Inc., center right, during the company's initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Friday, July 10, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SK Hynix options will debut Tuesday and likely be a smashing success, thanks to record-high retail trading activity and everyday folks trying to find the next big AI success story.
The South Korean semiconductor sensation sold almost $27 billion of stock in its U.S. market-debut Friday and fits the bill for exactly the type of trade individual investors have been clamoring for: suppliers of technology and tools needed to power the AI boom.
And those retail traders are bringing some serious firepower.
Retail accounted for an average $6.7 billion of options premium traded per day last month, more than 15% above the previous record in May, and 65% above last year's average, according to a July 7 report by Citadel Securities. Semiconductor trading accounted for more than $1 billion per day, the most popular theme.
For many of those retail tech traders, SK Hynix's memory business reminds them of Micron – the paragon of the supply-chain bottleneck thesis that rallied almost 1000% the past year before a 23% selloff since its late-June high.
"People are about to get SK Hynix specifically because Nvidia's made it very clear they're going to need a continuous supply of memory," said Gav Blaxberg, founder and CEO of Wolf Financial, a sprawling trader enclave with idea-sharing events that span X, YouTube and podcasts. "You have a demand super-cycle and there are only a few companies that can supply to that scale."
Scouring the stock market for companies supplying the computational revolution with power, memory or anything else that might get squeezed by massive demand is the latest obsession among everyday investors who are themselves more sophisticated than ever, thanks to open-source technology and AI agents.
"They're the bottleneck bros," said David Dziekanski, founder of ETF shop Quantify Funds.
Their inspiration: Leopold Aschenbrenner, the 24-year-old ex-OpenAI researcher whose skill at picking stocks grew into a reported $20 billion hedge fund and garnered him the nickname "AI Nostradamus."
Traders are quite literally plugged into Aschenbrenner's picks, tracking 13-F and 13-G filings for new positions and sharing ideas via copy-cat applications like Autopilot and Dub, which allow traders to bandwagon onto picks by popular users.
"Leopold is like the Bill Ackman for these bottleneck bros in the AI space trying to find the next leg of the AI story," Dziekanski said in a call. "Everyone wants to know what the next trade is these guys are going to hit."
SK Hynix U.S. shares
To be sure, SK Hynix options may have some competition in the popularity of single-stock leveraged ETFs where volumes have been soaring. At least 10 ETF issuers filed registrations to list single-stock exchange-traded funds tracking SK Hynix, Reuters reported last week.
The options will begin trading Tuesday and were still pending certification by the Options Clearing Corp. as of writing, according to a spokesperson from Cboe.
