SK Hynix Tops Samsung to Become South Korea's Most Valuable Company
By Kimberley Kao
Memory-chip maker SK Hynix has overtaken Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable company amid the artificial-intelligence-driven chip boom.
Shares of SK Hynix closed 5.6% higher on Monday, lifting its market capitalization to 2.080 quadrillion won, equivalent to $1.362 trillion. Samsung shares ended 0.1% lower, taking its market value to 2.067 quadrillion won based on shares outstanding.
The Kospi rose 0.7% to end at a record high, taking the index's year-to-date gains to 117%. South Korea's benchmark stock index is outperforming its Asian peers, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gaining 44% and Taiwan's Taiex rising 65% so far this year.
South Korea's stock market has received a boost this year from AI-driven demand for chips, as the global AI infrastructure build-out continues.
Shares of SK Hynix have more-than quadrupled this year, becoming the second South Korean company to cross the $1 trillion market-value threshold this year, after Samsung.
The two South Korean companies trail the world's largest contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Asia's first trillion-dollar company.
SK Hynix, a key supplier of high-bandwidth-memory products used in Nvidia's AI accelerators, in April posted a fivefold jump in quarterly net profit on surging demand.
In recent years, memory makers have given priority to the production of HBM for specialized memory needed for AI. Training large-language models typically requires the pairing of Nvidia's graphics processing units with HBM.
Bernstein analysts said Samsung's and SK Hynix's stock prices have room to extend gains, as HBM prices are likely to rise to narrow the profitability gap for suppliers. This will lead to notable earnings revisions, they said in a note. Higher prices, however, will amplify the cost burden on hyperscalers, they added.
Bernstein raised its target price to 440,000 won from 225,000 won for Samsung, and to 3.3 million won from 1.15 million won for SK Hynix.
Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 22, 2026 05:55 ET (09:55 GMT)
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