How Leveraged ETFs and a Profitability Pivot Propelled SK Hynix Past the Trillion-Dollar Mark

New leveraged ETFs drove SK Hynix past $1 trillion market cap, with 10.4 trillion won in first-day turnover. The stock surged 238% year-to-date, closing valuation gap with Samsung to just 6%.

The numbers alone tell an extraordinary story. But the real drama behind SK Hynix’s ascent above $1 trillion in market value unfolded not in the chipmaker’s factories, but on the Seoul exchange on 27 May, when 16 new single-stock leveraged and inverse ETFs began trading. The KODEX SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage ETF from Samsung Asset Management notched 4.39 trillion won in volume and gained 18.44%, while its Mirae Asset rival, the TIGER SK Hynix Single Stock Leverage ETF, saw 2.07 trillion won change hands with a 18.56% advance. Combined, all 16 products generated roughly 10.4 trillion won in turnover on the first day alone.

Yet the broader market’s enthusiasm was far from universal. While the KOSPI index surged 2.25% that day to close at 8,228.70 and briefly touched an intraday record of 8,450.26, the rally was built on a fragile base: only 77 stocks rose while 826 fell. The ETF flows had supercharged concentration in a handful of semiconductor and AI names, and SK Hynix was the prime beneficiary. Its shares jumped 9.31% to 2,243,000 won, vaulting the company past the trillion-dollar threshold for the first time.

The momentum carried into the next day. On Thursday, even as the KOSPI retreated 0.53% and Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.47%, SK Hynix added another 2.07% to close at 2,289,000 won. That gave the stock a 238% gain since the start of the year and a market capitalisation of about 1,631 trillion won — equivalent to roughly $1.08 trillion. The distance from its 52-week low of 509,635 won now stands at 349%.

That relentless climb has reshuffled the pecking order in Seoul. According to the Korea CXO Institute, the valuation gap between SK Hynix and longtime leader Samsung Electronics has shrunk to just 6%. A year ago, if Samsung’s valuation was set at 100, SK Hynix came in at only 45.8. Today, Samsung’s market cap sits at around 1,750 trillion won ($1.16 trillion) and is trending lower — its shares lost 2.44% on Thursday. Together, the two companies now account for more than 40% of the entire KOSPI weighting.

The ETF-driven demand has a solid fundamental basis. Mirae Asset Securities raised its price target for SK Hynix from 3.2 million won to 3.8 million won on 27 May, an 18.8% uplift that implies roughly 66% upside from current levels. Analyst Kim Young-gun justified the move not by lifting earnings estimates, but by re-rating the valuation multiple. He lifted the price-to-book ratio from 5.3 to 6.2, citing an expected average return on equity of 66% between 2026 and 2028 — compared with a ten-year average of 19%. The argument is a structural shift: higher memory prices and a growing share of long-term supply contracts are expected to sustain elevated profitability for years, not just quarters.

The raw numbers back that thesis. In the first quarter, SK Hynix reported revenue of 52.6 trillion won and an operating profit of 37.6 trillion won, translating to an operating margin of 72%. The company is riding acute global shortages of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialised chips essential for training and running AI models. SK Hynix controls 57% of the HBM market by revenue, far ahead of any competitor. Spot prices for memory chips doubled in the first quarter, and another 63% increase is expected in the current quarter. Major investment houses anticipate supply constraints will persist until at least 2028, keeping pricing power firmly in the hands of the market leader.

Despite the dizzying rally, the stock’s relative strength index of 68.9 suggests it has not yet entered clearly overbought territory. The next inflection point will depend on whether SK Hynix can ramp HBM shipment volumes in the second half of the year as planned. If it does, the path to Mirae Asset’s 3.8 million won target — and to erasing the final valuation gap with Samsung — remains open.