SK Hynix's market value surpasses Samsung Electronics for the first time in 26 years. In the AI era, companies directly benefiting from infrastructure construction have received higher valuation premiums than diversified giants.

On June 22, SK Hynix's intraday stock price rose to a record high of 2.95 million won, with a market capitalization reaching 208.1 trillion won, surpassing Samsung Electronics' 207.3 trillion won. This is the first time since November 2000 that Samsung has lost its position as the top market cap in the Korean stock market. SK Hynix has gained a total of 341.9% this year, compared to Samsung's 197.7% during the same period.
Performance is the foundation for the market cap overtaking. First-quarter revenue was 52.58 trillion won, up 198% year-on-year, breaking the 50 trillion won mark for the first time. Operating profit margin reached 72%, exceeding Nvidia's 65%, setting a record in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Korean and international brokerages are collectively reassessing this company. Hanwha Investment & Securities raised its target price from 1.63 million won to 4.3 million won, nearly 1.6 times higher, the highest among Korean brokerages. The core argument is that long-term supply agreements (LTA) and HBM demand have fundamentally changed the profitability volatility of memory chips.
SK Securities, KB Securities, and JPMorgan Chase all raised their target prices to 3 million won, while Citibank raised it to 3.1 million won. Nomura straightforwardly said, "This time is truly different," and UBS called it "a super cycle in storage that hasn't occurred in nearly thirty years."
On June 23, before the market opened, the stock briefly broke through 3 million won but officially retreated by more than 5%. Some brokerages have issued warnings: given that Samsung Electronics' profit scale and growth rate forecasts are higher than SK Hynix's, the market cap overtaking may be a short-term overheating signal.
However, data from GaoHui Investors tracked by Meli Asset Securities shows that the stock with the highest net buy in the morning was still SK Hynix.