SK Hynix Gains Nvidia’s HBM4 Nod but Sheds 11% in Broadcom-Fueled Rout

SK Hynix stock plunges 11.27% despite Nvidia CEO confirming HBM4 qualification; Broadcom guidance miss and memory demand fears trigger selloff. Company plans to double capacity and pursue $14B US listing.

The week just past served up a split-screen view of SK Hynix: on one side, a historic high in HBM4 certification from Nvidia; on the other, a brutal 11.27% weekly slide that sliced nearly a tenth off the stock in a single session. The whipsaw has left investors digesting the same story from two different angles — one anchored in long-term demand, the other in sudden market panic.

Friday’s selloff was triggered by a single figure from Broadcom. The US chipmaker’s fiscal third-quarter 2026 guidance pegged its AI-chip revenue at $16 billion — a 200% year-on-year surge, yet roughly 7% below the $17.2 billion the market had baked in. For a sector already stretched by a massive rally, that miss was enough to set off an aggressive rotation. In Seoul, the fallout crashed the KOSPI more than 6%, forcing a circuit breaker after KOSPI-200 futures tumbled 5%. SK Hynix closed at 2,070,000 KRW, a far cry from the 52-week high of 2,407,000 KRW hit just four days earlier.

Rumours only worsened the mood. Unconfirmed reports suggested Nvidia could halve the standard memory configuration for its Rubin NVL72 platform, from 55 TB to 28 TB per rack. That instantly stoked fears about overall memory demand and dragged down semiconductor stocks across the board.

Yet as the market sold off, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang landed at Seoul’s Gimpo Airport with a direct message. “All three vendors have been qualified,” he said, confirming that SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron have all passed the HBM4 qualification process for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform and are already in production. Supply-chain analysts estimate SK Hynix will command 60–70% of the HBM4 volume, with Samsung taking around 25–30% and Micron covering the rest. Morgan Stanley calculates that memory now accounts for 435% more of a Rubin rack’s component cost than in the previous generation, underscoring just how much is at stake.

Management isn’t letting the share-price gyrations distract from the build-out. SK Hynix confirmed it plans to double chip production capacity within five years, with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won warning of a structural shortage that could persist until 2030. Investment is flowing into facilities in Cheongju, the Yongin semiconductor cluster and a US packaging plant. The capex budget will significantly exceed last year’s 30.2 trillion won. Meanwhile, the company’s planned US listing is gaining momentum — a confidential filing has drawn “extraordinarily positive” institutional feedback, and ADRs are expected in 2026. The offering could raise up to $14 billion, opening the door for US-only mandates.

Hwang Soo-wook of Meritz Securities views the plunge largely as profit-taking after a massive rally. With no fresh catalysts on the immediate horizon, he expects a pause. The next major test for the stock comes in July, when SK Hynix reports official quarterly earnings. Until then, the market will be watching Nvidia’s upcoming HBM4 volume allocations for a clearer signal on whether the fundamental story can reclaim the narrative.