SK Hynix Sheds 3% as Nvidia Leadership Shake-Up Meets a Halved Morgan Stanley Target

SK Hynix shares closed yesterday at 1,216,000.00 KRW, down 3.0%, as investors weighed the implications of Jensen Huang's departure from Nvidia against a sharply reduced price target from Morgan Stanley. The decline rippled across the memory and semiconductor complex, with Micron among the other losers and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also coming under pressure. Broader South Korean equities felt the strain as well.

Media reports pointed to caution over how the change at the top of Nvidia might affect the wider AI ecosystem. Nvidia's weakness revived doubts about the durability of artificial intelligence spending, and SK Hynix — a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory — is seen as particularly exposed to any shift in that demand picture. Colette Kress, Nvidia's finance chief, is running the company on an interim basis.

Morgan Stanley Trims Its Target but Keeps the Faith

Morgan Stanley cut its price target on SK Hynix to 1.6 million Won from 2.6 million Won, a reduction of roughly 38%. The broker nonetheless stuck with its "Overweight" rating, meaning it continues to recommend that clients hold the stock at above-market weight.

The analysts framed the revision around two risks: the possibility that the memory market's supply tightness could ease, and slower expansion of data-center capacity after 2028. Morgan Stanley stressed that its more cautious valuation reflected potential shifts in market supply and demand growth rather than any already-reported business figures for that period.

Long-Term Contracts and a Buyback

Against that backdrop, SK Hynix has moved to shore up confidence on its own terms. On October 28 the company said long-term agreements already cover more than 50% of its production capacity for 2027–28. The same day, its board approved an on-market repurchase of 14.9 million common shares, with the buying window running from October 29 through January 28, 2027.

Separately, Reuters reported on November 3 that US authorities had held up export licenses for equipment needed to expand production in Dalian. That complicates Solidigm's plans for potential NAND plants in New York, though the company said it has not yet decided on a specific location.