SK Hynix’s 11% Weekly Rout Belies a Strategic Pivot: Nvidia’s HBM4 Nod, $67 Billion Capex, and a US IPO

Broadcom's AI revenue miss triggered a global chip selloff, dragging SK Hynix down 11% despite Nvidia certifying its HBM4 chips. South Korea's market bore the brunt.

SK Hynix secured a critical endorsement from Nvidia this week for its next-generation HBM4 memory chips, yet the stock still suffered its worst weekly drubbing in months. Shares of the South Korean chipmaker closed at 2,070,000 won on Friday, a decline of 11.27% over seven days and roughly 14% below the all-time high hit just days earlier. The catalyst came not from any company-specific flaw, but from a shockwave that started thousands of kilometers away in Silicon Valley.

Broadcom released its quarterly results after the US market close on June 3 and guided for third-fiscal-quarter 2026 AI chip revenue of $16 billion — a figure that, while representing more than 200% year-over-year growth, fell short of the $17.2 billion analysts had penciled in. That roughly 7% gap was enough to send Broadcom shares tumbling more than 15% in after-hours trade and drag the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 5.45%. The selling pressure cascaded into Asia, where Seoul bore the brunt. The KOSPI plunged 5.54%, far outpacing Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 (minus 1.31%) and Shanghai’s Composite (minus 0.71%). The Korea Exchange was forced to activate a circuit-breaker after KOSPI 200 futures dropped 5%, halting program trading for five minutes.

The concentrated nature of the Korean market magnified the damage. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together account for over 50% of the KOSPI’s weight, and nearly three-quarters of this year’s index gains had come from those two names alone. That cluster risk unwound violently. Foreign investors have pulled a net $22 billion out of South Korean equities since May, with about $12 billion of that exiting SK Hynix alone. Leveraged products amplified the pain: a 2x bull certificate on the stock lost roughly 20% in the week, catching retail traders who had piled into leveraged chip bets just weeks earlier.

Yet amid the sea of red, SK Hynix’s fundamental narrative may have actually strengthened. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the company’s booth at Computex 2026 in Taipei, examined HBM4E wafers, and scrawled “Please Make More” on them. Nvidia formally certified SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron as suppliers for the HBM4 chips needed for its upcoming Vera-Rubin architecture, with industry estimates giving SK Hynix a 60–70% share of the order volume. The certification confirms that all three are already in production. Separately, rumors that Nvidia could sharply cut memory capacity per server rack in the new platform stirred anxiety about potentially lower aggregate demand for memory, though no official detail has emerged.

Management is plowing ahead regardless. SK Hynix plans to double its memory chip production capacity over the next five years, backed by a $67 billion capital expenditure program through 2028. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has said a global memory shortage could persist until 2030. To help finance the buildout, the company has confidentially filed with the SEC for a US listing of American Depositary Receipts, aiming to complete the process by the end of 2026. The listing could raise as much as $14 billion, according to market sources, and the company reports “extraordinarily positive” feedback from US investors.

Analysts have so far resisted calling the rout a trend reversal. Han Ji-young of Kiwoom Securities views the selloff as sentiment-driven rather than a deterioration in fundamentals or a macro crisis, arguing the chip-driven KOSPI remains an attractive entry point. Hwang Soo-wook of Meritz Securities expects a pause for breath after the massive rally, with the next major test coming in July when SK Hynix reports its official quarterly earnings. For perspective, the stock is still up roughly 206% year-to-date, and anyone who bought at the 52-week low of 491,500 won is sitting on a gain of more than 320%. Whether the Broadcom disappointment was a healthy breather or the start of a more sustained correction will likely become clear when the next wave of AI infrastructure earnings — led by Broadcom and Nvidia themselves — hits the tape.