SK Hynix has overtaken Samsung Electronics to become South Korea’s most valuable listed company, powered by its dominance in high-bandwidth memory chips, the AI boom, and one of the biggest corporate turnarounds in South Korean history.
TL;DR
- SK Hynix surpassed Samsung Electronics in market value after its shares jumped 5.6% on Monday.
- The chipmaker’s rise has been driven by high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI systems from players such as NVIDIA and Google.
- Its shares have rallied more than 340% this year, lifting its market capitalization above Samsung and Micron.
- Analysts say SK Hynix’s bet on HBM changed the memory chip market from a commodity race into a high-value AI infrastructure battle.
How SK Hynix Used AI Memory Chips To Overtake Samsung
SK Hynix has pulled off a milestone that would have seemed almost impossible two decades ago.
The company, once weighed down by debt and close to being sold to Micron, has now overtaken Samsung Electronics to become South Korea’s most valuable listed company, dethroning the electronics giant who held the top spot for an uninterrupted 25-year and 7-month.
Shares of SK Hynix closed up 5.6% on Monday, pushing its market capitalization to 2,080.4 trillion won, or about $1.35 trillion. Samsung’s stock dipped 0.14%, leaving it with a market value of 2,066.7 trillion won, excluding preferred shares.
Samsung, however, said its market capitalization should include preferred shares. By that measure, Samsung’s value stood at 2,246.4 trillion won at market close.
Still, the moment marks a dramatic shift in South Korea’s corporate hierarchy. Samsung had held the country’s top market value spot since 2000.
Why SK Hynix’s HBM Strategy Became A Game-Changer In AI
The rise of SK Hynix is closely tied to high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, a specialized chip that stacks memory vertically to deliver faster performance and lower power consumption.
These chips are now critical for AI systems, including infrastructure powering applications such as ChatGPT and advanced AI models. SK Hynix supplies HBM chips to customers such as NVIDIA and Alphabet’s Google, placing it at the center of the global AI buildout.
“The emergence of customised AI memory fundamentally changed the industry's economics and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as the market leader,” said Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities.
Unlike traditional memory products, HBM chips are tightly integrated with AI processors. This makes them harder to replace, gives suppliers stronger pricing power, and raises the barriers for competitors.
By 2025, SK Hynix captured 61% of the global HBM market, ahead of Micron’s 21% and Samsung’s 17%.
From Penny Stock To AI Chip Powerhouse
SK Hynix’s rise is also a turnaround story. Founded in 1983 as part of Hyundai, the company was later spun off and eventually acquired by SK Group.
In 2002, then-Hynix Semiconductor was nearly sold to Micron after being crippled by debt from aggressive expansion. The deal collapsed, leaving the company under creditor control for nearly a decade. Its shares fell as low as 135 won in 2003, making it what Korean investors called “Dongjeon-ju,” or a penny stock.
The company’s fortunes continued to follow the memory market’s boom-and-bust cycle. In 2023, a severe downturn in memory prices pushed SK Hynix to an annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won.
A year later, the AI boom flipped the story. As Microsoft, Google, Meta, and others poured money into AI infrastructure, SK Hynix reported a record annual operating profit of 23.5 trillion won in 2024.
Analysts now believe Samsung’s position as the world’s largest DRAM producer could also come under pressure.
Bank of America estimates SK Hynix’s monthly DRAM output will reach about 589,000 wafers this year, compared with roughly 691,000 wafers for Samsung. However, SK Hynix is expected to expand DRAM output by about 38% between 2025 and 2028, while Samsung is projected to grow by about 17.5%.
That could narrow the production gap to less than 10% by 2028, from around 23% in 2025.
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What Comes Next For SK Hynix
SK Hynix is now reportedly choosing Nasdaq for its planned U.S. listing, a move that could widen its investor base and increase its visibility with global markets.
For now, its rise signals how deeply AI has reshaped semiconductors. Memory chips are no longer just interchangeable parts in the computing supply chain. In the AI era, they are becoming core infrastructure, and SK Hynix has turned that shift into a market-defining lead.
