South Korea's "market cap king" changes hands as SK Hynix's market value surpasses Samsung's for the first time.

South Korea's "market cap king" changes hands as SK Hynix's market value surpasses Samsung's for the first time.

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The South Korean chip industry is undergoing a historic shift. On Monday, SK Hynix's stock price surged, its market value surpassing that of Samsung Electronics, making it the listed company with the highest market value in South Korea, breaking Samsung's long-held top spot.

On Monday (June 22), SK Hynix's stock price rose by 5.61%, bringing its market value to 2,080.38 trillion won (about $1.35 trillion), while Samsung Electronics fell by 0.14% during the same period, with a market value of 2,066.66 trillion won. The gap between the two is extremely small.

This reversal in market value reflects the differentiated views investors have on the prospects of the two companies amid the wave of AI chips. SK Hynix has gained favor thanks to strong demand for its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products, while Samsung faces greater competitive pressure.

Historic Moment: Samsung’s “Market Value King” Status Challenged

Strong demand from AI data centers for high-end memory chips is the core driving force behind this trend. Memory chip prices doubled quarter-on-quarter in Q1 this year and are expected to rise by up to another 63% this quarter, with continued supply shortages benefiting the world’s leading memory chip manufacturers.

In recent years, as AI infrastructure construction accelerates, demand for high-performance memory chips continues to climb. SK Hynix's deployment in the HBM sector has drawn intense attention from the capital market, with its stock performance consistently outpacing that of Samsung Electronics. The market value gap has narrowed over time and finally achieved a historic surpassing on Monday.

Samsung Electronics has long held the position of South Korea’s most valuable company, and is the absolute core heavyweight stock in the Korean stock market. SK Hynix’s market value surpassing Samsung marks the first substantial challenge to this longstanding pattern, carrying significant symbolic meaning in South Korea's capital market.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics are both leading global memory chip manufacturers, with longstanding competition in the DRAM and NAND flash sectors.

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