Big Tech Steps In to Bankroll SK Hynix's $100 Billion Fab Blitz as AI Memory Shortage Bites

SK Hynix's HBM chips are fully booked, prompting Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to finance new factories. Despite a $14.5B foreign selloff, shares rally on bullish analyst targets and a supply deficit through 2027.

The AI hardware feeding frenzy has reached a new stage. SK Hynix's entire production of high-bandwidth memory chips is sold out, pushing capacity to its absolute limits. In response, the world's most valuable technology companies — Microsoft, Google, and Amazon — are now stepping in to finance new factories in exchange for guaranteed future supplies. The move underscores how deeply the memory chip bottleneck is squeezing hyperscalers racing to build out AI infrastructure.

Yet even as this unprecedented corporate backing validates SK Hynix's strategic position, a very different story is playing out on the stock exchange. Foreign investors have been aggressively cashing out. Between May 7 and May 22, they sold nearly 19.6 trillion won of SK Hynix shares — roughly $14.5 billion at current exchange rates. The selloff was so concentrated that SK Hynix and its local rival Samsung Electronics accounted for more than 83% of all net foreign selling on the Korean market during that period. Samsung alone saw outflows of around 18.9 trillion won.

The paradox is striking. Despite the wave of profit-taking, SK Hynix shares have barely flinched. The stock closed Friday at 1,941,000 won, up 6.71% for the week and clocking a gain of nearly 187% since the start of the year. Market watchers largely view the foreign selling as portfolio rebalancing after an extraordinary rally, not a change of heart on the company's fundamentals.

Analyst targets are climbing faster than ever. Shinhan Securities recently doubled its price objective from 1.9 million won to a staggering 3.8 million won, implying more than a doubling from current levels. The firm projects operating profit of 26.69 trillion won for 2026, surging to over 40 trillion won in 2027 as the memory supercycle extends. SK Securities, meanwhile, holds a target of 3 million won, arguing that a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.2 no longer fits a standard cyclical valuation in this environment. UBS lifted its target in parallel to 1.7 million won, citing a supercycle that defies historical patterns.

The bullish case rests on a persistent supply deficit. Goldman Sachs estimates the DRAM market will be undersupplied by 4.9% in 2026 — the tightest imbalance in 15 years. The firm expects the broader memory market to run at a deficit until at least mid-2027. That view is echoed by Shinhan's own analysis of a supply crunch lasting through 2027, driven by insatiable demand for High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), DRAM, and NAND.

SK Hynix is racing to close the gap. The pilot phase of its new M15X fab in Cheongju is starting this month, backed by a 20 trillion won investment dedicated to HBM3E and HBM4 production. Mass production is slated to begin in November, with a target of 50,000 wafers per month by mid-2027. An even larger project — the Yongin cluster, with a budget of 120 trillion won — aims to lift total capacity to 900,000 wafers per month by 2030. The combined spending of roughly 140 trillion won ($104 billion) is being facilitated in part by the deep-pocketed customers who need the chips most.

A key technical hurdle lies just ahead. The stock is approaching resistance near 1.95 million won, with the 52-week high at 1.976 million won. A decisive breakout would clear the path to new records, provided foreign selling pressure continues to ease. Another supportive sign comes from Frankfurt, where SK Hynix's Global Depositary Receipts have traded at an average premium of 2.3% over the underlying shares over the past month, suggesting international demand remains robust.

The competitive landscape is also shifting. Samsung Electronics has reportedly passed final HBM4 qualification tests with Nvidia and AMD and could begin shipments as early as June. Samsung's yield, however, remains below 60%, compared with SK Hynix's 80% — a gap that gives the market leader breathing room, but not complacency. Any successful ramp-up by Samsung could eat into SK Hynix's dominant market share.

For short-term shareholders, a dividend date is on the calendar: the stock goes ex-dividend on May 28, with a payout of 375 won per share scheduled for late June. But the bigger story remains the structural imbalance between supply and demand — a mismatch that, in Goldman's words, will keep the memory market in deficit for at least another year. As long as that holds, SK Hynix's valuation rests on a foundation far sturdier than any single quarter's profit-taking.