SK Hynix’s Dram stock pushed its market value to 2,080.4 trillion won on June 22, overtaking Samsung Electronics and taking the top spot among South Korea’s listed companies. The shift puts the memory-chip maker ahead in a ranking Samsung had held since 2000, after a 5.6% close lifted the stock on the day.
2,080.4 trillion won came after shares rose more than 340% this year, a move tied to demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI systems for customers such as Nvidia and Alphabet's Google. For holders of the stock, the change is no longer just about a chip cycle; it has become the market’s clearest read on who is winning from AI memory demand.
Kim Sunwoo on AI memory
Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities, said: "The emergence of customised AI memory fundamentally changed the industry's economics and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as the market leader". SK Hynix’s run has been driven by HBM chips, which are stacked vertically to deliver faster performance and lower power consumption and are tightly integrated with AI processors.
2024 brought the clearest proof of that shift, with SK Hynix reporting an annual operating profit of 23.5 trillion won after a 2023 annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won. That reversal shows how much pricing power has moved toward suppliers of specialised memory, especially when capacity is scarce and AI systems need faster, denser chips.
Samsung Electronics at 2,066.7 trillion won
2,066.7 trillion won was Samsung Electronics’ value on the same close, after its stock eased 0.14% and the calculation excluded preferred shares. Samsung said its market capitalisation should include preferred shares, which would put its value at 2,246.4 trillion won at the market close and above SK Hynix on that measure.
Including preferred shares changes the comparison, but it does not erase the signal from the common-share ranking: investors have rewarded the company most exposed to AI memory. Samsung’s broader business mix still spans logic chips and consumer electronics such as smartphones and TVs, while SK Hynix is the dominant supplier of HBM chips used in AI systems.
2002 to 2024 turnaround
2002 was the low point in the company’s modern history, when then-Hynix Semiconductor was on the verge of being sold to Micron and the deal fell through, leaving it under creditor control for nearly a decade. SK Hynix’s shares later plunged as low as 135 won in 2003, a contrast with the 2024 profit that now sits behind its lead over Samsung Electronics.
The unresolved issue is how long SK Hynix can keep the market-cap lead if Samsung’s preferred shares stay in the calculation and if chip pricing shifts again. For now, June 22 gives the market a clean answer on the common-share scoreboard: the AI memory winner is SK Hynix.
