South Korean Stocks Rally as SK Hynix Payout and AI Optimism Boost Markets

By Amanda Lee

South Korean stocks rallied as artificial-intelligence enthusiasm gained steam after SK Hynix pledged a $75 billion shareholder payout.

The benchmark Kospi, in which SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics account for nearly half of the market value, rose as much as 6.5% and was recently up 5.7% at 5957.35. Both stocks gained nearly 8%.

The Korea Exchange briefly suspended trading on Kospi early Wednesday after futures rose more than 5%, triggering a five-minute trading halt.

SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory-chip maker, reported record third-quarter revenue and operating profit, though net profit fell short of analysts' estimates.

The results lifted shares of Samsung Electronics, another major memory-chip maker, as investors bet that surging AI-driven demand for memory will benefit both companies.

SK Hynix's latest earnings should soothe fears that AI spending is running out of road, said Josh Gilbert, an analyst at eToro.

"We're still a long way from seeing everything AI can do, and models keep becoming more capable, which means there's room for that spending to grow, and every smarter model that comes along is going to need more memory than the last," Gilbert said.

The gains extend a rebound in AI-related shares that took hold after Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, made its IPO filing public on Monday. The filing has given investors a fresh read on the economics of AI after worries about heavy spending weighed on tech stocks in recent months.

Write to Amanda Lee at amanda.lee@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 27, 2026 23:09 ET (03:09 GMT)