SK Hynix is now South Korea's most valuable company

SK Hynix is now South Korea's most valuable company

SK Hynix has overtaken Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable listed company.

The chipmaker, which specializes in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for AI systems, has seen its shares skyrocket over 340% this year.

This surge has pushed its market value past that of industry giants like Samsung and Micron.

Market cap comparison and stock performance

SK Hynix's shares rose by 5.7% today, bringing the company's market capitalization to an impressive 2,082.5 trillion won ($1.35 trillion).

This was slightly higher than Samsung Electronics's market cap of 2,081.3 trillion won (excluding preferred shares), which only gained 0.4% during the same period.

The stock surge comes as AI reshapes the global semiconductor industry, making specialized memory chips essential for advanced applications like ChatGPT and other sophisticated AI models.