SK Hynix overtook Samsung Electronics on Monday to become South Korea’s most valuable listed company, ending a 26-year run at the top for the consumer electronics and semiconductor giant.
At the close, SK Hynix shares had risen 5.6%, pushing its market capitalization to 2,080.4 trillion won ($1.35 trillion), while Samsung ended the session down 0.1%, leaving its market value at 2,066.7 trillion won
Samsung said in a statement that any calculation of its market capitalization should include preferred shares — on that basis, its value stood at 2,246.4 trillion won at the close. The milestone reflects SK Hynix’s rise as the dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips, which are used in AI systems built by customers including Nvidia and Alphabet’s Google. SK Hynix stock has gained more than 340% this year.
In the global HBM market as of 2025, SK Hynix commanded a 61% share, with Micron at 21% and Samsung trailing at 17%, according to Reuters. “The emergence of customised AI memory fundamentally changed the industry’s economics and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as the market leader,” Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities, said. The reversal is a remarkable turn for a company that nearly collapsed two decades ago. A potential sale to Micron loomed over the company in 2002, when what was then called Hynix Semiconductor had buckled under debt taken on during a period of rapid growth.