SK Hynix joins an elite group of companies including Nvidia and TSMC with market values exceeding $1 trillion.

By Kwanwoo Jun SK Hynix has become one of the world's most valuable chip makers, joining an elite group of companies including Nvidia and TSMC with market values exceeding $1 trillion amid the artificial-intelligence-driven chip boom. Shares of the world's second-largest memory-chip maker have more than tripled this year. On Wednesday, they jumped as much as 15% in early trade, bringing SK Hynix's market capitalization to more than 1,600 trillion won, equivalent to $1,061 trillion. SK Hynix was the second South Korean company to cross the $1-trillion threshold after Samsung Electronics, whose market value surpassed the mark earlier this month. The two South Korean companies trail the world's largest contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Asia's first trillion-dollar company. Memory chips have recently emerged as some of the world's most profitable products, with investors piling into the tech sector as chip demand is unlikely to cool anytime soon. SK Hynix--alongside its home-country rival Samsung and U.S.-based Micron Technology--dominates the world's advanced AI memory-chip market led by Nvidia. As the global AI infrastructure buildout continues, chip makers stand to benefit from tighter supplies of high-performance computing chips and higher prices for memory products. SK Hynix, which has led the high-bandwidth-memory market by developing and supplying HBM3 and HBM3E products to Nvidia ahead of its rivals, in April posted a fivefold jump in quarterly net profit on surging demand. Net profit surged around 400% year over year to a record 40 trillion won for the three months ended March, well above street views, with both revenue and operating profit also rising to quarterly records, according to SK Hynix. Memory chips act like fuel lines for computing engines. As AI processors from Nvidia and others grow more powerful, they require more memory, including both conventional chips and advanced high-bandwidth memory. SK Hynix executives have said they expect chip demand to continue outpacing supply over the next three years, especially for HBM products. The company continues to ramp up investment to boost production capacity, as customers are scrambling to secure available supplies of cutting-edge semiconductors for AI data centers, smartphones and other devices. It is planning to list in the U.S. this year as it raises funds for investments to meet demand for advanced chips driven by the AI boom. SK Hynix said in March it had filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list American depositary receipts. A U.S. listing could attract more global investors to help fund the company's ambitious investment plans. Write to Kwanwoo Jun at [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires 05-26-26 2348ET

ALSO REPORTED BY · 1 SOURCE

Physicists at the University of Oxford show they can assemble Schrödinger’s cat-like superpositions from far more exotic quantum ingredients.

OneAdvanced has launched what it bills as the UK’s first private, sovereign healthcare large language model trained on NHS primary-care data.

Technology shares faltered amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran.