SK Hynix has topped US$1-trillion in market capitalization for the first time, joining memory rivals Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology in a historic, AI-fuelled semiconductor rally. Shares of SK Hynix jumped 14.9% on Wednesday, pushing the company’s market value to a record ₩1,680-trillion ($1.12-trillion) and cementing South Korea as the first country outside the United States to boast more than one corporation in the elite $1-trillion club.
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The milestone follows a rapid succession of market triumphs across the sector; domestic rival Samsung crossed the trillion-dollar threshold on May 6, while US-listed Micron achieved the feat just one day prior on Tuesday. Globally, only three Asian firms have ever entered the $1-trillion tier, including contract chipmaking giant TSMC.
The monumental valuations are being driven by an insatiable demand for high-end memory chips integrated into AI hardware architectures, such as Nvidia’s chipsets. This enterprise data centre demand has severely constrained global memory supplies, starving adjacent consumer sectors like smartphones, laptops, and automotive manufacturing.
Consequently, memory chip prices doubled in the first quarter of the year alone and are projected to climb an additional 63% in the current quarter, yielding record-breaking corporate profits. “We expect memory chip demand to continue exceeding supply by 2028 to keep price levels high,” noted Kim Young-gun, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, who raised his stock target prices for SK Hynix and Samsung to ₩3.8-million and ₩550,000 per share, respectively. Echoing this optimism, UBS recently tripled its target price for Micron, pointing to the structural transformation AI has forced upon the broader memory ecosystem.
The massive surge triggered a historic day on the South Korean Stock Exchange:
See also
- Index Surge: Driven by the chipmaking duopoly, the benchmark Kospi index rose 5.09% to an all-time high of 8,457.09.
- Trading Curbs: The velocity of the gains triggered a “sidecar” regulatory intervention, temporarily halting localized algorithmic trading
- Market Concentration: Samsung and SK Hynix now account for a staggering 50% of the entire Kospi index by market capitalization.
The Kospi has cemented its status as the world’s top-performing index amid the global AI boom, gaining 91% so far this year following a 76% surge last year. Year-to-date, Micron leads share growth at 245%, followed by SK Hynix at 215%, and Samsung at 149%. Samsung’s stock independently climbed 8% to a record ₩323,000 on Wednesday after unionized South Korean workers approved a tentative wage agreement, successfully averting a strike that threatened to disrupt global electronics supply chains.
