Sk Hynix It has a name that is difficult to remember and makes you think more of a code than a listed company. Yet, from a company on the verge of bankruptcy, Sk Hynix has now become one of the stars of the Seoul stock exchange, surpassing the capitalization of the other South Korean giant, the most famous Samsung, and becoming the most valuable company at Kospi. Meanwhile, he is preparing for the landing at Nasdaq.
The company is now the leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips, so-called hbm, used in artificial intelligence systems for customers like Nvidia and Google and has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global AI boom, with its stocks making a rally of over 340%. Monday, the capitalization SK Hynix's market value rose to 2.082,5 trillion won (US$1,35 trillion), that of Samsung, however, remained essentially stable at 2.081,3 trillion won in market capitalization, excluding preferred shares. The company emphasized in a statement that any calculation of its market capitalization should include preferred shares. Including these shares, the company's value at market close stood at 2.246,4 trillion won.
And it doesn't end here, because as reported by Reuters, after entering the trillion club, Sk Hynix has chosen the Nasdaq for its planned listing in the United States, which would broaden the company's investor base and further increase its visibility among global investors.
A success story that started in the deep red of twenty years ago
The artificial intelligence ha transformed the industry of semiconductors, raising the memory chip from simple raw materials to critical components of the infrastructure that powers applications like ChatGpt and advanced artificial intelligence models. SK Hynix focuses mainly on memory chip, while Samsung also produces logic chips and consumer electronics such as smartphones and televisions. Samsung had held the leading position since 2000. “The advent of custom AI memory has fundamentally changed the economics of the industry and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as a market leader,” he told Reuters Kim Sunwoo, senior analyst at Meritz Securities.
Yet the company has scored one of the biggest U-turns in history South Korean corporate after twenty years ago rd almost bankrupt under the weight of debt. In 2002, the then Hynix Semiconductor was on the verge of being sold to Micron (the US company now listed on the Nasdaq), crippled by debt accumulated during an aggressive expansion strategy. The deal ultimately fell through, leaving the company under the control of creditors for nearly a decade.
In 2003 its shares collapsed until it reached 135 won, so much so that it was considered a discount stock, or “Dongjeon-ju” in Korean. In the following years, its fortunes followed the traditional boom-and-bust cycle of the global memory industry. In 2023, a severe recession hit memory prices hard, pushing SK Hynix to record an annual operating loss of 7,73 trillion won. Then the recovery, started a year later with the acceleration of the artificial intelligence boom and massive investments by companies like Microsoft, Google and Meta, which led the industry to record an annual operating profit of 23,5 trillion won in 2024, a record at the time.
The turning point with the intuition of making its chips indispensable
Analysts attribute Sk Hynix's central role in the global AI ecosystem to his decision to continue invest in your HBM, a highly specialized memory chip, with the characteristic of being stacked vertically, to offer faster performance and a lower energy consumption. Unlike conventional memory products, Hbm chips are strictly integrated with AI processors, creating significantly higher barriers to entry. During 2025, Sk Hynix won the 61% of the global market of Hbm memories, well above the 17% of Samsung and 21% of micron Technology.
SK Hynix was founded in 1983 as a unit of Hyundai, but was later spun off and acquired by SK Group, a family-owned Korean conglomerate, called a “chaebol,” whose businesses range from telecommunications to energy. president of the SK group, Chey Tae-won, who at the time faced strong opposition, explained in a book released last January, the details of that crucial agreement. “What I really wanted to accomplish when we acquired Hynix was to transform it from a standard memory manufacturer in a major semiconductor company, whose products became indispensabili“Chey said. “In the past, it didn’t matter whether the memory came from Hynix, Samsung, or Micron. They were interchangeable and standardized products. Hbm memory is differentIf SK Hynix's HBM memory is replaced with another product, the AI system may not function properly. What was once a peripheral component has become a fundamental component“, Chey said.
Sk Hynix launches memory challenge to Samsung
According to some analysts, even Samsung's position as the world's largest manufacturer of dram (the main memory used in computers, smartphones and other devices for temporary storage of operational data) could be threatened by Sk Hynix. According to estimates by Bank of America, SK Hynix's monthly DRAM production will reach approximately 589.000 wafers this year, compared to Samsung's approximately 691.000 wafers. However, SK Hynix is likely to increase DRAM production by approximately 38% between 2025 and 2028, compared to its competitor's growth of approximately 17,5%. This would reduce the production gap SK Hynix's share of Samsung to less than 10% by 2028, down from about 23% in 2025.
