SEOUL, June 22 (Reuters) – SK Hynix on Monday overtook Samsung Electronics to become South Korea’s most valuable publicly traded company, marking a drastic change for the chipmaker that, two decades ago, was on the brink of bankruptcy due to debt.
The company, now the leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence systems for customers such as Nvidia and Alphabet’s Google, has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global AI boom, driving a more than 340% rise in its shares this year and lifting its market value above both Samsung and Micron.
Shares of SK Hynix, currently the world’s most valuable memory chip maker, closed up 5.6%, bringing its market capitalization to 2,080.4 trillion won ($1.35 trillion), while Samsung shares fell 0.14%, leaving it with a market value of 2,066.7 trillion won, excluding preferred shares.
AI has transformed the global semiconductor industry, elevating specialized memory chips from commonly traded commodities to essential components of the infrastructure that power applications like ChatGPT and advanced AI models.
SK Hynix mainly focuses on memory chips, while Samsung also makes logic chips and consumer electronics such as smartphones and TVs. Samsung has held the top spot since 2000.
“The emergence of personalized memory for AI has fundamentally changed the economics of the industry and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as a market leader,” said Kim Sunwoo, senior analyst at Meritz Securities.
The rise of SK Hynix marks the culmination of one of the biggest turnarounds in South Korean corporate history.
In 2002, Hynix Semiconductor was on the verge of being sold to Micron, having been hampered by debt accumulated during an aggressive expansion campaign. The deal ended up failing to materialize, leaving the company under the control of creditors for almost a decade.
Its shares plummeted to 135 won in 2003, making it considered a low-value stock.
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Its trajectory in the following years followed the traditional boom and bust cycle of the global memory sector. In 2023, a severe recession hit memory prices, leading SK Hynix to record an annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won.
The recovery began a year later, as the AI boom gained momentum and companies like Microsoft, Google and Meta made massive investments, leading the company to post an annual operating profit of 23.5 trillion won in 2024 — a record at the time.
