SK Hynix has surpassed Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable listed company, marking a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the chipmaker that nearly collapsed two decades ago. According to Business Standard, SK Hynix shares traded up 5.7% to bring the company's market capitalisation to ₹2,082.5 trillion won ($1.35 trillion) as of 0347 GMT, compared with gains of 0.4% in Samsung Electronics to ₹2,081.3 trillion won. The stock hit this milestone as AI reshapes the global semiconductor industry, elevating specialized memory chips from commonly traded commodities into critical components of the infrastructure powering applications such as ChatGPT and advanced AI models. Samsung Electronics had held the top spot since 2000, but the company now focuses primarily on memory chips while SK Hynix also manufactures logic chips and consumer electronics, giving it a broader product portfolio advantage. Samsung said in a statement that any calculation of its market capitalisation should include preferred shares, which would bring the value to around ₹2,252 trillion won, according to Business Standard.
SK Hynix has captured 61% of the global HBM market by 2025, far ahead of Samsung Electronics' 17% and Micron's 21%, according to Business Standard. Unlike conventional memory products, HBM chips are tightly integrated with AI processors, creating significantly higher barriers to entry and giving suppliers greater pricing power. The company's strategic focus on specialized HBM has propelled a more than 340% rally in its shares this year, with SK Hynix stock surging 6.51% to a record ₹2,685,000 won following the announcement of HBM4E sample delivery to major AI customers. SK Hynix hit a $1 trillion market capitalization in late May, becoming only the third Asian company ever to reach that level, joining Samsung and TSMC in this exclusive club. Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities, noted that "The emergence of customised AI memory fundamentally changed the industry's economics and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as the market leader."
SK Hynix's soaring share price marks the culmination of one of the biggest turnarounds in South Korea's corporate history, as reported by Business Standard. In 2002, then-Hynix Semiconductor was on the verge of being sold to Micron, having been crippled by debt accumulated during an aggressive expansion drive. The deal eventually fell through, leaving the company under creditor control for nearly a decade. Its shares plunged as low as ₹135 in 2003, leaving it viewed as a penny stock, or "Dongjeon-ju" in Korean. The company started recovering in 2023 as the AI boom gained momentum, pushing it to report an annual operating profit of ₹23.5 trillion in 2024, a record at the time. In 2023, a severe downturn battered memory prices, pushing SK Hynix to report an annual operating loss of ₹7.73 trillion. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won explained his thinking in a book published in January, stating "What I really wanted to accomplish when we acquired Hynix was to transform it from a commodity memory producer into a mainstream semiconductor company whose products are indispensable."
Bank of America estimates that SK Hynix's monthly DRAM output will reach about 589,000 wafers this year, compared with roughly 691,000 wafers for Samsung Electronics, according to Business Standard. However, SK Hynix is likely to expand DRAM output by about 38% between 2025 and 2028, compared with about 17.5% growth at its rival. That would narrow SK Hynix's production gap to less than 10% by 2028 from about 23% in 2025, which would be a particularly significant achievement because of Samsung's larger manufacturing scale. Analysts say that Samsung's position as the world's largest DRAM producer could also be under threat by SK Hynix. Reuters has reported that SK Hynix is opting to choose the Nasdaq for its planned U.S. listing, which would broaden the company's investor base and raise its profile further among global investors. SK Hynix was founded in 1983 as a unit of Hyundai, but was later spun off and purchased by SK Group, the family-run "chaebol" conglomerate.
The KOSPI's record close at 9,063 completes one of the most dramatic recovery arcs in major market history: from the June 8 circuit-breaker low of 7,484 to a record high of 9,063 in just eight trading sessions — a 21% recovery. However, the concentrated nature of gains has created significant market imbalances. According to the Korea Exchange, only 112 (11.8%) of 946 companies listed on the KOSPI rose on the day, while 791 stocks, or 83.6% of the total, fell. This alienation phenomenon is not new, with 277 of the 946 KOSPI stocks on the rise and 638 on the decline as of the previous day. Samjeonics' share of market capitalization in the securities market exceeded 40% for the first time in March and exceeded 50% at the end of last month, with Samsung Electronics now accounting for more than 53% of the index. The KOSDAQ index also rose only 6-7% compared to the closing price of 945.57 points on the first trading day of this year, with the gap between the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes widening to around nine times from 4.6 times at the beginning of the year.
