SK Hynix has surpassed Samsung in market value, driven by strong demand for AI memory chips and its early investment in high-bandwidth memory technology.
SK Hynix has overtaken Samsung Electronics to become South Korea’s most valuable listed company, as its early bet on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips paid off amid the artificial intelligence boom.
According to Reuters, SK Hynix’s market capitalisation briefly reached nearly 2.1 quadrillion won on Monday, surpassing Samsung. The company’s shares have surged more than 340% this year, significantly outperforming Samsung and other memory chipmakers.
The turnaround stems from SK Hynix’s focus on HBM chips, a niche memory technology critical for AI accelerators used in data centres. The company began investing heavily in HBM years before demand surged.
That strategy initially looked risky. In 2019, an 880 billion won ($640 million) investment in packaging facilities struggled with underutilisation as demand weakened.
“It was a headache back in 2019,” said former executive Shim Dae-yong.
However, the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 triggered an AI boom, sharply increasing demand for HBM chips. SK Hynix is now Nvidia’s main HBM supplier.
“No one expected the HBM market would post such explosive growth,” Shim said.
Samsung is now playing catch-up in the fast-growing AI memory segment.
