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SK Hynix is the company with the largest market capitalization in South Korea after the first trading session of this week. Photo: Reuters . |
According to Reuters , the first trading session of the week saw SK Hynix shares close with a 5.6% increase, pushing the company's market capitalization to a record high of 2.08 trillion won (equivalent to $1.35 trillion ).
Conversely, shares of Samsung Electronics fell slightly by 0.14%, causing the company's market capitalization (excluding preferred shares) to drop to 2,067 trillion won, officially losing its position as the largest company on the South Korean stock exchange.
This dramatic race reflects the profound impact of the global artificial intelligence (AI) wave, where specialized memory chips have been elevated from ordinary commercial goods to core infrastructure components for advanced applications such as ChatGPT.
Unlike Samsung, a multi-faceted company that manufactures logic chips and sells consumer electronics like smartphones and TVs, SK Hynix focuses its core resources on memory chips and has become a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to tech giants like Nvidia and Alphabet (Google).
This focus has fueled a phenomenal surge in the company's stock value, increasing by over 340% this year alone.
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SK Hynix has become the world's most valuable memory chip manufacturer with a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion . Photo: Reuters . |
Commenting on the new landscape, Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities, pointed out that the emergence of custom AI memory has profoundly changed the industry and allowed the SK Group company to establish itself as a market leader.
Shortly afterward, Samsung Electronics also issued a statement in response, asserting that any capitalization calculation must include preferred stock, and that if this group of shares is included, Samsung's actual value remains at 2,246 trillion won.
SK Hynix stages a spectacular comeback.
SK Hynix's rise is considered one of the greatest turnaround stories in South Korean corporate history. Founded in 1983, the company's predecessor was Hynix Semiconductor, a unit of Hyundai.
Going back to 2002, the company faced the choice of selling itself to Micron as it was burdened with massive debts accumulated from its rapid expansion.
The aforementioned last-minute failed deal left the company under the control of its creditors for nearly a decade. In 2003, the company's stock price hit a low of just 135 won, turning it into a "penny stock," or "Dongjeon-ju" (coin stock) in Korean terminology.
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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won answers questions from reporters at the company's booth during the annual Computex exhibition. Photo: Reuters. |
Even after joining the SK Group, the company's fortunes have fluctuated wildly, mirroring the boom and bust cycles of the semiconductor industry. Most recently, in 2023, a severe downturn hit memory prices hard, resulting in an annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won.
However, the situation began to reverse dramatically just a year later thanks to a surge in AI investment from giants like Microsoft, Google, and Meta. This massive influx of capital helped SK Hynix turn things around and set a record operating profit of 23.5 trillion won in 2024.
The new technological era
Analysts believe that SK Hynix's central position in the global AI ecosystem stems from a bold decision: to continue maintaining and investing in HBM technology even during the semiconductor industry crisis.
Unlike traditional memory chips, HBM chips are stacked vertically to deliver significantly faster processing performance with lower power consumption, and are tightly integrated with AI processors, creating a very high barrier to market entry and giving vendors ultimate pricing power.
By 2025, SK Hynix will have captured 61% of the global HBM market share, far surpassing Samsung's 17% and Micron's 21%.
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The HBM3E 16-High memory chip is considered one of SK Hynix's best-in-class chips. Photo: Reuters . |
In a book published in January of this year, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won – who faced fierce opposition when he decided to acquire Hynix in 2012 – shared his strategic vision: "What I really wanted to achieve when acquiring Hynix was to transform it from a conventional memory manufacturer into a mainstream semiconductor company with irreplaceable products. In the past, it didn't matter whether the memory came from Hynix, Samsung, or Micron because they were interchangeable commodities. But HBM is different. If Hynix's HBM is replaced by another product, the AI system might not function properly. What was once a peripheral component has become a core component."
Not stopping at HBM, SK Hynix is now directly threatening Samsung's position as the world's largest DRAM manufacturer, a position it has held for decades. According to estimates from Bank of America, SK Hynix's monthly DRAM production is expected to reach approximately 589,000 wafers this year, compared to around 691,000 wafers from its competitor.
However, SK Hynix's DRAM capacity expansion rate is projected to reach 38% between 2025 and 2028, significantly outperforming Samsung's 17.5% growth.
This would narrow the production gap between the two sides to below 10% by 2028, compared to a 23% difference in 2025.
Currently, to further strengthen its global position and access a broader capital network, SK Hynix is taking steps to prepare for a listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States.
Source: https://znews.vn/samsung-mat-vi-tri-cong-ty-lon-nhat-han-quoc-post1662154.html
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