Once burdened by debt and near collapse, SK Hynix has emerged as one of the biggest winners of the artificial intelligence boom.
SK Hynix has overtaken Samsung Electronics to become South Korea’s most valuable publicly traded company, highlighting the dramatic impact of artificial intelligence on the global semiconductor industry and marking a remarkable turnaround for a company that once struggled with severe financial difficulties.
Shares of the memory-chip maker surged on Monday, pushing its market capitalisation above that of Samsung. The milestone reflects investor confidence in SK Hynix’s dominant position in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, a critical technology used in AI servers and accelerators deployed by major technology companies including Nvidia and Google.
The company has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI spending boom, with demand for advanced memory chips soaring as businesses expand investments in generative AI, data centres and high-performance computing infrastructure. Unlike traditional memory products, HBM chips are tightly integrated with AI processors and offer higher performance and energy efficiency, making them essential for advanced AI applications.
Industry analysts attribute SK Hynix’s rise to its decision to continue investing in HBM technology during a prolonged downturn in the memory market. That strategy enabled the company to establish an early lead in a segment that has become one of the most profitable areas of the semiconductor industry.
The achievement represents a significant transformation for the company. Formerly known as Hynix Semiconductor, it faced a debt crisis in the early 2000s and spent years under creditor management after a proposed sale to Micron failed. Since then, the company has steadily rebuilt its business, benefiting from successive technology cycles and, more recently, the explosive growth of AI.
Analysts estimate SK Hynix now commands the largest share of the global HBM market, well ahead of its major rivals. The company is also expected to continue expanding its memory production capacity in the coming years, potentially narrowing the manufacturing gap with Samsung.
Its growing prominence has been further underscored by plans for a U.S. stock market listing, a move expected to broaden its global investor base and strengthen its international profile.
