A Company Once Buried in Debt Suddenly Becomes Number One

SK Hynix has dethroned Samsung Electronics as South Korea’s most valuable company, marking a major achievement for the chip giant that nearly collapsed under a mountain of debt two decades ago. SK Hynix is now the dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence systems, with clients including Nvidia and Alphabet (Google). The company has arguably been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global AI explosion. Its shares surged more than 340% throughout 2026, achieving a market capitalisation above both Samsung and Micron. Besides becoming the most valuable company in the world, SK Hynix is also recorded as the most expensive memory chip producer globally. Its shares jumped 5.6% on Monday (22/6) local time, reaching a market capitalisation of 2,080 trillion won. Meanwhile, Samsung shares dipped slightly by 0.14% over the same period, with its market capitalisation recorded at 2,066 trillion won. AI has reshaped the global semiconductor industry. Thanks to AI, specialised memory chips have transitioned from generally traded commodities into essential components of the infrastructure supporting applications like ChatGPT and advanced AI models. SK Hynix primarily focuses on memory chips, whereas Samsung also produces logic chips and consumer electronics such as smartphones and TVs. Samsung had held the top position since 2000. “The emergence of customised AI memory has fundamentally changed the economics of the industry and enabled SK Hynix to establish itself as the market leader,” said Kim Sunwoo, senior analyst at Meritz Securities, as quoted by Reuters on Tuesday (23/6/2026). Samsung stated that any calculation of its market capitalisation should include preferred shares. Including those shares, the company’s value at market close reached 2,246.4 trillion won. The resurgence of SK Hynix marks the pinnacle of one of the greatest turnarounds in South Korean corporate history. In 2002, the then Hynix Semiconductor was nearly sold to Micron after being crippled by debt accumulated during aggressive expansion efforts. That deal ultimately fell through, leaving the company under creditor control for nearly a decade. Its shares plummeted to as low as 135 won in 2003, making it viewed as a penny stock, or “Dongjeon-ju” in Korean. The company’s journey in subsequent years followed the traditional boom-and-bust cycles of the global memory industry. In 2023, a sharp downturn hit memory prices, pushing SK Hynix to report an annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won. The company began recovering a year later as AI’s popularity surged and massive investments poured in from firms like Microsoft, Google, and Meta, propelling it to report an annual operating profit of 23.5 trillion won in 2024, a record at the time. Analysts attribute SK Hynix’s central role in the global AI ecosystem to its decision to keep investing in HBM, a specialised memory chip stacked vertically to deliver faster performance and lower power consumption. Unlike conventional memory products, HBM chips are tightly integrated with AI processors, creating much higher barriers to entry and giving suppliers greater pricing power. By 2025, SK Hynix controlled 61% of the global HBM market, far ahead of Samsung’s 17% and Micron’s 21%. SK Hynix was founded in 1983 as a Hyundai unit but was later spun off and purchased by SK Group, a family-run “chaebol” conglomerate whose businesses span from telecommunications to energy. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who faced strong opposition to the deal at the time, explained his thinking in a book published in January. “What I really wanted to achieve when we acquired Hynix was to transform it from a commodity memory producer into a mainstream semiconductor company whose products are indispensable,” Chey said. “In the past, it didn’t matter whether the memory came from Hynix, Samsung, or Micron. They were interchangeable commodity products. HBM is different. If SK Hynix’s HBM is replaced with another product, the AI system might not function properly. What was once a peripheral component has now become a core component,” Chey added. Analysts say Samsung’s position as the world’s largest DRAM producer could also be threatened by SK Hynix. Bank of America estimates that SK Hynix’s monthly DRAM production will reach about 589,000 wafers this year, compared to approximately 691,000 wafers for Samsung. However, SK Hynix is likely to expand DRAM production by about 38% between 2025 and 2028, compared to around 17.5% growth at its rival. This would narrow SK Hynix’s production gap to less than 10% by 2028 from about 23% in 2025, a potentially very significant achievement given Samsung’s larger manufacturing scale. “Previously, the difference in manufacturing scale meant there was no way for competitors to close the profitability gap with Samsung,” Kim said. Reuters has reported that SK Hynix has selected Nasdaq for its planned US share listing, which will broaden the company’s investor base and further raise its profile among global investors.