SK Hynix Tops $1 Trillion in Market Value as AI Memory Demand Drives Shares to Record High

The artificial-intelligence investment boom has fueled demand for high-bandwidth memory, delivering a surge in earnings and liquidity for SK Hynix, one of the technology’s leading suppliers. With its cash reserves swelling to 88 trillion won, the chipmaker has emerged as an unusually powerful force in South Korea’s corporate credit market, channeling its AI windfall into bonds and short-term debt while gaining influence over pricing and availability.

So far in 2026, SK Hynix has purchased as much as $28 billion of South Korean corporate bonds and commercial paper, making it a major source of demand and liquidity. The buying spree has supported issuers and helped absorb supply, but it has also made high-quality securities scarcer, pushed prices higher and complicated portfolio allocation for other institutional investors. The resulting imbalance is giving the memory-chip giant growing sway over a market traditionally shaped by financial institutions.

SK Hynix has become a prime beneficiary of the AI infrastructure boom, using its lead in high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, to supply chips that feed data to AI accelerators. Demand for HBM, server DRAM and enterprise solid-state drives, combined with sharply higher memory prices, has turned a cyclical recovery into a semiconductor supercycle. KB Securities estimated that global technology companies and AI data-center operators represented about 70% of second-quarter revenue.

On July 29, SK Hynix reported 2026 second-quarter revenue of 79.32 trillion won and operating profit of 60.54 trillion won, up 257% and 557% from a year earlier, respectively. Its operating margin reached 76%. Net profit surged to 93.92 trillion won, producing a 118% net margin, as all three measures set quarterly records. Even so, revenue and operating profit missed a 14-brokerage consensus of 84.1 trillion won and 64.1 trillion won, showing how elevated expectations have become.

The AI boom has fueled demand for high-performance memory, making South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix a critical part of the global supply chain. With international investors sharply focused on AI hardware infrastructure, the company’s technological lead and market valuation have become gauges of the technology sector’s health. They also directly influence capital flows into Taiwan’s memory and optical communications stocks, drawing intense market attention.

SK Hynix’s American depositary receipts surged 27.3% in their first three days of trading, with their premium soaring to 51% in July 2026. The fervor helped drive South Korea’s KOSPI up nearly 8% intraday to touch 7,400, while SK Hynix shares in Seoul jumped 12%. Barclays subsequently raised its price target for SK Hynix to $330, saying a severe global memory shortage was only just beginning.

SK Hynix, the global leader in high-bandwidth memory for AI, decided to issue American depositary receipts to reinforce its technological edge and raise about 15 trillion won for advanced chipmaking equipment from ASML. The move is intended to fund its expansion through U.S. capital markets. It would be the largest foreign IPO in Nasdaq’s history and is targeting a valuation of $29 billion, with the market expecting AI to break the traditional semiconductor cycle.

Despite volatility in its parent company’s share price, SK Hynix’s ADR offering was seven times oversubscribed in the United States. The ADRs were ultimately priced at a premium at $149 and formally began trading on Nasdaq on July 13. They opened at $170 and closed their first session up 13%. The rush into AI memory has drawn global investor interest, while rival Samsung Electronics is also reportedly considering an ADR offering.

SK Hynix is one of the world’s leading memory manufacturers. Its long-term supply agreements traditionally included price caps to reduce cost volatility for customers. As AI servers drive widespread adoption of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM supply and demand have tightened. Removing the caps allows contract prices to rise with spot-market rates, further expanding profit potential.

SK Hynix recently removed memory price caps from all of its latest long-term supply agreements, allowing contract prices to directly reflect market increases. Analysts estimate that demand for HBM and AI could push its DRAM gross margin close to 90% in the second quarter of 2026, challenging its record high. The forecast has also fueled debate over whether profitability is nearing its ceiling.

SK Hynix is a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to AI chipmakers including NVIDIA. The expansion of AI data centers by Microsoft, Google and Meta has driven up memory demand and prices. As of 2025, SK Hynix held 61% of the global HBM market, far ahead of Samsung Electronics’ 17%, making it a key force reshaping South Korea’s semiconductor industry.

SK Hynix shares closed 5.6% higher on June 22, 2026, lifting its market capitalization to 2,080.4 trillion won, or about $1.35 trillion. That surpassed Samsung Electronics’ 2,066.7 trillion won valuation excluding preferred shares, ending Samsung’s reign as South Korea’s most valuable company since 2000. SK Hynix also plans to issue about $27 billion of American depositary receipts on Nasdaq as early as mid-to-late July.

Generative AI is driving data-center expansion, while AI servers’ heavy use of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, has made SK hynix and Micron Technology central to the supply chain. The companies’ rapidly rising share prices and market values also reflect investors’ reassessment of the memory industry’s strategic importance to AI infrastructure.

According to reports as of July 20, 2026, SK hynix’s market value had risen to $1.31 trillion and Micron Technology’s to $1.278 trillion, putting both ahead of Bitcoin. The reshuffle pushed Bitcoin down to 19th place among the world’s largest assets by market value, showing how the AI chip boom has propelled major memory manufacturers into the top ranks of global assets.

High-bandwidth memory (HBM) delivers large volumes of data to AI accelerators with high bandwidth and low power consumption, making it a critical component in the race for generative AI computing power. After a downturn in the memory market, SK hynix rebounded through technology investment and its supply partnership with Nvidia, becoming a key company in the global AI semiconductor supply chain.

South Korean broadcaster KBS was granted access to SK hynix’s M16 wafer fabrication plant for the first time. Its program “The World Seen for the First Time” showed the company’s secret HBM production line operating around the clock, along with employees at work. The report did not specify an air date, investment amount or production capacity, but footage from the facility showed the company working at full speed to meet demand for AI memory.

SK Hynix is one of the world's leading memory manufacturers and a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, used in AI accelerators. As technology companies worldwide expand investment in AI infrastructure, demand is rising for HBM and enterprise solid-state drives, or eSSDs. These high-value products have become the main engines of the company's revenue and profit growth.

SK Hynix reported first-quarter 2026 revenue above 50 trillion won for the first time, while its net margin reached 77% and its operating margin hit 72%, both records. The results sent its shares up 11% in a single day and lifted its market capitalization above 1,000 trillion won, equivalent to about $710 billion, reflecting continued market optimism over AI memory demand.

SK Hynix is a leading global supplier of DRAM and NAND memory and a major producer of high-bandwidth memory for AI servers. As investment in generative AI infrastructure expands, rising purchases of servers and enterprise SSDs have made memory prices a key driver of the company’s earnings and share price.

KB Securities raised its price target for SK Hynix to 1.9 million won in its latest report and forecast that the company’s operating profit could reach 40 trillion won in the first quarter of 2026, far above market expectations. The report said demand from AI servers and enterprise SSDs was driving sharp increases in DRAM and NAND prices, with that momentum expected to continue supporting the business.