Nomura Keeps the Faith on SK Hynix as Seoul Selloff Erases 16% in a Week

Nomura has reiterated its buy rating on SK Hynix with a ?4.7 million price target, even as the chipmaker's shares buckled under a broad South Korean selloff — extending a weekly loss to 16%.

The stock closed Tuesday at 1,223,000.00 KRW, down 4.2%, as the benchmark KOSPI fell 3.73%. The retreat came amid mounting doubts over the profitability and financing of artificial intelligence infrastructure projects. Market watchers pointed to uncertainty surrounding U.S. cloud provider CoreWeave and the scrapped listing of an Australian data center operator, compounded by rising global interest rates and profit-taking by foreign and institutional investors following earlier gains. Other semiconductor heavyweights also came under selling pressure.

Nomura's conviction rests on an expected shortage of memory chips that the brokerage forecasts will persist through 2028 — a long-term capacity squeeze that contrasts sharply with the short-term financing worries currently driving sentiment. Investors, for now, are weighing the near-term risks of AI projects more heavily than the structural supply constraints facing chipmakers.

Chinese Competition and Regulatory Clouds

Beneath the AI funding concerns, other pressures are building. The persistent high-rate environment and emerging competition from China have dampened investor mood. According to media reports, China's memory manufacturer CXMT is making headway in advanced 4F² DRAM chips, a development that has unsettled market participants. Over the past seven days, SK Hynix shares have shed 16%.

Additional uncertainty stems from discussions about subsidiary Solidigm. Lee Chan-jin, head of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), said yesterday that the regulator sees a potential U.S. listing of the subsidiary as conflicting with rules protecting shareholders in dual listings of parent and subsidiary companies. The regulatory classification and next steps remain open. Investors reportedly fear such a move could dilute the parent company's value.

New Products and a Strengthened Supply Chain

Away from the market turmoil, SK Hynix unveiled new memory and server system solutions for AI infrastructure at Friday's OCP Global Summit, emphasizing memory-centric system designs. Among the products was a second-generation 256GB CMM-DDR5 memory based on the CXL 3.2 standard, which the company says doubles transmission bandwidth versus its predecessor to more than 80GB/s.

On the domestic front, SK Hynix moved yesterday with the South Korean government and four major banks to establish a credit guarantee program of up to 2 trillion won for semiconductor suppliers. SK Hynix and the participating financial institutions are contributing a total of 100 billion won, while K-SURE is providing the guarantees.

Investors will get fresh insight into operating momentum when SK Hynix reports third-quarter 2026 results. The company has scheduled its conference call for October 28 at 9:00 a.m. Seoul time — an event likely to be closely watched for reliable signals on actual demand for high-performance memory.