SK Hynix Overtakes Samsung to Become Kospi’s Largest Company for First Time in 26 Years

SK Hynix Surpasses Samsung, Sets New Market-Cap Milestone

South Korea’s top spot by market capitalization has changed hands for the first time in 26 years. SK Hynix overtook Samsung Electronics to become the largest company on the Kospi, powered by rapid growth as it led the high-bandwidth memory market during an artificial intelligence investment boom and a semiconductor supercycle.

As of 12:42 p.m. on June 22, SK Hynix was trading at 2,934,000 won a share, up 6.15% from the previous session. The stock climbed as high as 2,945,000 won during the session, setting a new 52-week high. Its market capitalization stood at 209.1 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics, which had long held the top spot on the Kospi, was up 0.99% at 357,500 won at the same time. Its market capitalization was calculated at 209.0 trillion won, putting it behind SK Hynix. The gap between the two companies stood at about 1.02 trillion won.

It was the first time Samsung Electronics had surrendered the No. 1 market-cap ranking in South Korea since it overtook Korea Telecom, now KT, in 2000. Samsung’s dominance at the top of the local stock market, which lasted nearly a generation, has now been broken.

The shift comes amid explosive growth in the AI industry and the emergence of a semiconductor supercycle. As a global AI investment boom drove a sharp increase in chip demand, semiconductor selling prices also jumped, lifting profits at both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Samsung Electronics operates businesses spanning semiconductors, smartphones and home appliances. SK Hynix, by contrast, is focused on semiconductors alone. In particular, it moved first in developing high-bandwidth memory products and supplied them to Nvidia, helping it lead the market ahead of rivals including Samsung Electronics and Micron.

That helped SK Hynix far outperform Samsung during the chip boom. Over the past year, Samsung Electronics shares have gained about 480%, while SK Hynix has surged more than 920%. SK Hynix’s market capitalization has jumped from 18.7 trillion won in June last year to above 200 trillion won in the span of a year.

SK Hynix plans to list American depositary receipts in the US in the second half of this year. The company submitted a Form F-1 registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in March for the planned ADR listing.

Experts expect further gains. Kim Dong-won, head of research at KB Securities, said demand for memory products including HBM, server DRAM and enterprise SSDs is entering an acceleration phase as the AI agent market rapidly expands from cloud-centered infrastructure to edge devices such as PCs and mobile devices. He added that SK Hynix shares could rise to 3.8 million won.

Kang Kyung-ju, Hankyung.com reporter qurasoha@hankyung.com