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SK Hynix, acquired by SK Group in 2012 in a deal widely seen as financially risky, pursued high-bandwidth memory chips (HBM)—a specialized memory type that was not widely used by data center customers at the time. The company released its first HBM product with Advanced Micro Devices in 2014, but fell behind Samsung in the late 2010s and debated halting development. Instead, executives doubled down, investing 880 billion won ($640 million（約1000億円）) into a packaging facility in Icheon and other assets. That facility sat largely empty in 2019 as demand from Nvidia plummeted, appearing to be a failed bet. After OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, demand for HBM chips exploded because they became critical to Nvidia's AI accelerators used in data centers. SK Hynix is now Nvidia's main HBM supplier, and its market value has exceeded Samsung's.
Why it matters
Samsung, which dominated the global DRAM memory market and was valued at more than 10 times SK Hynix in 2012, remained the country's blue-chip benchmark. SK Hynix's rise demonstrates that a willingness to pursue a technology many viewed as marginal—even at high risk and with years of apparent failure—can deliver outsized returns if the underlying demand eventually materializes. The company's overtaking of Samsung signals a shift in which businesses benefit most from the AI boom.
What to watch
South Korea's stock market has been volatile, and SK Hynix's market cap fell below Samsung's on Wednesday, suggesting the ranking may remain unstable. The sustainability of SK Hynix's supplier status with Nvidia, and whether its HBM production capacity can keep pace with AI demand, will determine whether the company can maintain its new standing.
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