SK Hynix has surpassed Samsung as South Korea’s most valuable publicly traded company. The manufacturer of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is reaping the full benefits of the global AI boom. Its stock has risen more than 340 percent this year.
SK Hynix rose 5.7 percent on Monday, bringing its market capitalization to 2,082.5 trillion won (approximately 1.35 trillion dollars). This puts it ahead of both Samsung, valued at 2,081.3 trillion won, and its U.S. competitor, Micron.
Samsung stated in a release that, when preferred shares are included in the calculation, its total market value amounts to approximately 2,252 trillion won. Samsung had held the top position since 2000.
From near-bankruptcy to stock market champion
The shift in leadership is remarkable, given SK Hynix’s history. In 2002, the company was on the verge of being sold to Micron, completely crippled by debt accumulated during an aggressive growth strategy. SK Hynix’s board rejected the deal, causing the acquisition to fall through. In 2003, the stock price dropped to 135 won. In 2023, the company still suffered an annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won due to a severe downturn in the memory market.
In 2024, a pivotal moment arrived for SK Hynix. The AI boom accelerated, driven by major investments from Microsoft, Google, and Meta. SK Hynix reported a record operating profit of 23.5 trillion won that year. This year, its stock price rose by more than 340 percent.
The driving force is high-bandwidth memory (HBM). These memory chips are essential for AI systems. SK Hynix supplies HBM to Nvidia and Google. The company holds more than 60 percent of the global HBM market. Demand is so high that its entire production capacity for 2026 has already been sold out.
To keep up, SK Hynix placed an order worth approximately eight billion dollars with ASML for EUV machines and is investing 12.9 billion dollars in a new packaging plant in South Korea.