SK hynix tops W2,000tr market cap as Kospi hits record - The Korea Herald

SK hynix briefly surpassed Samsung Electronics to become the second South Korean company to exceed a market capitalization of 2,000 trillion won (approximately $1.31 trillion) on Friday, highlighting ... Read original →

SK hynix’s brief market cap surge over Samsung underscores South Korea’s dangerous overreliance on memory cycles. Technically, surging HBM3E/HBM4 demand is straining TSV and advanced packaging capacity, with TSMC’s CoWoS and Taiwan, China-based suppliers as critical chokepoints. On compliance, escalating U.S. export controls force Korean firms into costly supply chain reconfigurations, raising operational risk. Samsung will likely counter by accelerating GDDR7/LPDDR6 roadmaps and using capex to constrain SK hynix’s expansion. Over the next 12–24 months, any slowdown in global AI server spending or tighter U.S.-Japan-Netherlands equipment curbs could trigger a sharp valuation correction—exposing KOSPI’s fragility beneath its record highs.