SEOUL, May 14 – South Korean memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix is approaching a historic $1 trillion market valuation, following Samsung Electronics’ recent achievement of the same milestone, as artificial intelligence demand positions South Korea as a central player in Asia’s AI surge.
The company’s stock price has surged over 200% this year, building on an impressive 274% gain in 2025, fueled by AI-driven demand for standard memory chips and specialized high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that power AI servers.
Should SK Hynix reach the trillion-dollar mark alongside Samsung, South Korea would achieve the distinction of being the first nation beyond the United States to host multiple trillion-dollar corporations.
“The market is running on FOMO sentiments, especially on AI-related names in Japan and Korea,” said Fabien Yip, market analyst at IG in Sydney.
Samsung achieved Korea’s inaugural trillion-dollar company status earlier this month, though Taiwan’s TSMC maintains its position as Asia’s most valuable company with a market cap exceeding $1.83 trillion.
These three semiconductor manufacturers and their unprecedented earnings have highlighted their essential function in the worldwide AI infrastructure network.
South Korea’s primary KOSPI stock index has experienced dramatic growth, reaching all-time highs as international investors of all sizes have invested heavily in chip companies.
The index has gained more than 86% this year, following a 75% surge in 2025 that marked its best yearly showing since 1999. From the beginning of 2025, the KOSPI has led global major stock markets in performance.
SK Hynix, valued at under $100 billion just 16 months ago, now approaches the market capitalizations of retail behemoth Walmart and Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of renowned investor Warren Buffett.
During Thursday’s trading, SK Hynix shares declined 0.48% while Samsung climbed over 3% to reach a new record, within a broader market that gained 0.9% and remained close to this week’s record peak. SK Hynix’s market capitalization stood at approximately $948 billion, calculated using Wednesday’s closing price and currency exchange rate.
