SK Hynix's 331% Surge Opens a New Era: Nasdaq Beckons as Samsung Slips From the Throne

SK Hynix dethrones Samsung as South Korea's most valuable company, plans Nasdaq ADR listing to raise up to $14B for AI memory expansion, with 72% operating margin from HBM dominance.

SK Hynix is preparing to take its stock to the Nasdaq, with a plan to sell American depositary receipts as early as August 2026. The filing has been with the SEC since March, and the South Korean chipmaker intends to offer between 2% and 3% of its shares, a move that could bring in up to $14 billion to fund a massive semiconductor cluster in Yongin. That capital injection comes at a moment when the company has already achieved something unprecedented: it has dethroned Samsung Electronics as South Korea's most valuable company for the first time in 25 years.

The shift in market capitalization happened on Monday, when SK Hynix's equity crossed the $1.35 trillion mark. The stock surged 5.61% to close at 2,919,000 won, pushing its year-to-date gain to a staggering 331%. When considering only common shares, SK Hynix now sits ahead of the perennial leader. Samsung's preferred shares, however, still keep the broader conglomerate larger in total market value. The last time Samsung was not number one was November 2000.

The engine behind this historic run is high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialized chip that powers Nvidia and Google's AI accelerators. SK Hynix controls roughly 61% of that market, a dominance that has translated directly into financial results. After a loss in 2023, the company posted an operating profit of 37.6 trillion won in the first quarter of 2026, with an operating margin of 72%. In mid-June, it began shipping the latest chip generation — likely HBM4E — to key customers.

That pricing power has caught the attention of institutional investors, but the rally has been anything but calm. The stock's annualized volatility hovers above 96%, and in the past 30 days alone it has climbed 50.6%. The relative strength index sits at 76, deep in overbought territory, signaling that a near-term pullback could be on the cards. Yet analysts remain bullish. Hanwha Investment & Securities has lifted its price target to 4.3 million won, arguing that SK Hynix still trades at a discount to US rival Micron.

The risks are not hard to spot. A sudden slowdown in data-centre buildout could flood the HBM market with capacity, and the breakneck speed of this rally has attracted speculative capital that can exit just as quickly. Samsung, meanwhile, is fighting back. Its own HBM chips have passed qualification cycles for major AI platforms, and the company's stock has climbed 21.7% over the past month. But for now, SK Hynix is the undisputed leader in the segment that matters most.

The combination of a Nasdaq listing, a near-monopoly in AI memory, and a 72% margin has created a powerful narrative. Whether the stock can sustain its momentum without a breather is another question. What is clear is that SK Hynix has rewritten the playbook for Korean chipmakers — and it is just getting started on the global stage.