SK Hynix’s Chairman Steps In With a Personal Buy as a $500 Billion Nvidia Pact Fails to Calm Nerves

SK Group chairman buys $3.5M in SK Hynix shares after record earnings miss, as $500B Nvidia partnership signals long-term AI bet.

The boss of South Korea’s SK Group has done something he has never done before: buy shares of SK Hynix directly. Chey Tae-won snapped up 3,620 shares on Thursday at a cost of roughly 4.79 billion won, or about $3.5 million, according to a regulatory filing. Until now, the chairman held his stake in the chipmaker indirectly through SK Square, the company’s largest shareholder.

The purchase lands at a moment of maximum anxiety. SK Hynix stock has been shredded since hitting an all-time high in late June, losing more than half its value in a matter of weeks. The chairman’s decision to put his own money on the line looks like an attempt to steady a ship that has been taking on water fast.

A Record Quarter That Disappointed

The buy came a day after SK Hynix reported the best quarterly results in its history. Revenue for the second quarter of 2026 surged 257 percent to 79.32 trillion won, while operating profit rocketed 557 percent to 60.54 trillion won. Both were all-time records.

Yet the market yawned — then sold off. Analysts had been expecting revenue of around 84 trillion won and operating profit of 64.2 trillion won. The miss, though modest, was enough to trigger a 9 percent plunge in after-hours trading. The culprit: a temporary soft patch in demand for PCs and smartphones, where manufacturers are struggling to secure enough memory chips.

The sell-off did not last. Within hours, the stock had reversed course and finished the after-hours session up more than 2 percent. The whipsaw captured the extreme sensitivity of a market that has become addicted to the AI narrative and terrified of any sign it might be fading.

A $500 Billion Bet on AI Infrastructure

What turned the mood around was a specific piece of news from the earnings call. SK Hynix management pushed back hard against growing doubts about the durability of the AI investment cycle. The company said it would set capital expenditure for 2026 at the top end of its 40-to-50-trillion-won guidance range, signaling it plans to double down on high-bandwidth memory and other AI-related products rather than pull back.

Then came the blockbuster: SK Group and Nvidia have signed a comprehensive partnership worth more than $500 billion to build out AI infrastructure. The agreement covers everything from constructing AI factories to supplying next-generation memory chips. For SK Hynix, it provides a long-term offtake guarantee for its AI memory business. For Nvidia, it locks in a stable supply of the advanced chips it needs to keep its own growth engine running.

A Chairman’s Vote of Confidence

Chey’s direct share purchase adds a personal dimension to the corporate messaging. Market observers read the move as an effort to shore up investor confidence after a brutal stretch that has seen the stock lose 55.74 percent from its 52-week high of 2,987,000 won, reached on June 25.

The relative strength index of 31.8 points to an oversold condition, and some analysts, including Dan Niles, see a potential short-term bottom forming for AI-related names. The recent plunge was exacerbated by forced selling during a broader market rout, according to market watchers.

Still, the stock remains under pressure. On Thursday alone, it fell 5.64 percent, and over the past seven days it has dropped 31.11 percent. The current price of around 1,322,000 won is roughly 52 percent below its peak, though it remains 21.75 percent above its 200-day moving average — a sign of just how dramatically positioning has shifted in a few short weeks.

A $600 Billion Wipeout in a Month

The scale of the sell-off has been historic. According to Bloomberg, SK Hynix lost nearly $600 billion in market value from its June peak, turning one of the world’s hottest AI investments into one of its biggest question marks. The loss in market capitalization over that period rivals that of SpaceX.

The broader market has felt the tremors. After a sharp correction the previous day, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed back above 63,000 points, while South Korea’s Kospi gained as much as 2.76 percent. Samsung Electronics, the country’s other memory-chip giant, also rallied in sympathy with SK Hynix’s results.

Cash Reserves for the Next Generation

Despite the turbulence, SK Hynix is not slowing its technology roadmap. The company ended the second quarter with 88 trillion won in cash reserves, giving it ample firepower for expansion. The centerpiece of its 2026 strategy is mass production of the new LPDDR6 mobile memory chip built on 10-nanometer technology. Testing and pilot production are complete, and volume production is set to begin in the second half of the year. The new chip promises a 33 percent higher data rate than the current LPDDR5X standard and is aimed at both premium smartphones and AI data centers.

Whether the record numbers, the Nvidia deal, and the chairman’s personal bet can restore investor confidence depends on one thing: how demand for PCs and smartphones evolves in the coming months. For now, the market is giving SK Hynix the benefit of the doubt — but only just.