SK Hynix overtakes Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable company, ending a 26-year reign

The market milestone

On Monday, SK Hynix briefly overtook Samsung Electronics as South Korea's most valuable listed company, ending a 26-year reign. SK Hynix shares rose 5.7% to a market capitalisation of 2,082.5 trillion won ($1.35 trillion, or 1.19 trillion euros), edging past Samsung's 2,081.3 trillion won, excluding preferred shares. Samsung, which had held the top spot since 2000, said that including preferred shares would lift its valuation to around 2,252 trillion won. The milestone makes SK Hynix the world's most valuable memory chipmaker.

AI boom fuels ascent

The surge is driven by explosive demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are customised for AI processors and have become critical for applications like ChatGPT. SK Hynix is the dominant supplier to Nvidia and Google. Its shares have jumped more than 340% this year, far outpacing Samsung's 200% gain. The company plans to double production within five years. Unlike Samsung, which also manufactures logic chips and consumer electronics, SK Hynix focuses primarily on memory, allowing it to capitalise quickly on the AI revolution.

The emergence of customised AI memory fundamentally changed the industry's economics and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as the market leader.

In the past, it didn't matter whether the memory came from Hynix, Samsung or Micron. HBM is different. If SK Hynix's HBM is replaced by another product, the AI system may no longer work properly. What used to be a peripheral component has now become an integral part.

From near-collapse to market leader

SK Hynix's rise is one of the biggest turnarounds in South Korean corporate history. In 2002, then-Hynix Semiconductor was nearly sold to Micron under a mountain of debt. The deal collapsed, leaving the company under creditor control for nearly a decade. Its shares fell to 135 won in 2003, a penny stock. The memory industry's boom-and-bust cycles continued, and in 2023 an operating loss of 7.73 trillion won (4.4 billion euros) hit the company. Recovery began in 2024 as AI investments from Microsoft and Google ignited demand, pushing SK Hynix to a record profit of 13.36 billion euros that year.

Broader chip export surge

South Korea's overall chip exports underscore the sector's strength. Early June data showed semiconductor shipments up 188.4% from a year earlier, with computer-related products jumping 293.3%. Exports adjusted for working-day differences rose 49.7%, reflecting the AI-driven boom that has lifted the entire industry.