SK Hynix overtakes Samsung in market cap for the first time in 26 years

Summary

On 22 June 2026, South Korea's SK Hynix overtook Samsung Electronics in stock market capitalisation for the first time in 26 years, driven by AI-chip demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM3e) — the component embedded in Nvidia's H100/H200 GPUs. SK Hynix's share price is up +347.7% year-to-date; Q1 2026 operating profit was ₩52.6T ($37.6B), +405% year-on-year, with a 72% operating margin beating Nvidia's 65%. Two days later, on 24 June, SK Hynix announced a $29-33B Nasdaq ADR that would rank among the largest-ever US exchange listings by a foreign chip company. The same day, Samsung and SK Hynix jointly unveiled a 300-400 trillion won (≈$220-290B) Honam/Gwangju semiconductor megacluster, with formal signing scheduled June 29.

The split

Korean financial press reads the flip as a warning to Samsung: HBM3e yield has become the defining competitive divide, and SK Hynix's early lead is compounding. Samsung has publicly acknowledged HBM yield issues; its AI-chip revenue is growing but from a lower base. Nikkei Asia frames it as structural rather than cyclical — the next Nvidia allocation window will determine whether Samsung can reverse the gap before it widens further. For global markets, CNBC frames SK Hynix's rise as the AI infrastructure bull thesis embodied in a single stock: +347% is the market's valuation of the world's HBM bottleneck position.

By the numbers

• June 22 — SK Hynix surpasses Samsung market cap; first time in 26 years.
• +347.7% — SK Hynix YTD share-price gain at the moment of overtaking.
• 72% — SK Hynix Q1 2026 operating margin (vs. Nvidia's 65%).
• $37.6B — SK Hynix Q1 2026 operating profit (+405% YoY).
• $29-33B — proposed Nasdaq ADR announced June 24.
• 300-400T won — Honam/Gwangju megacluster (Samsung + SK Hynix joint; formal signing June 29).

Why it matters

The market-cap flip inverts 26 years of Korean tech hierarchy. SK Hynix's margin exceeding Nvidia's — the market's prior benchmark for AI-era profitability — signals that memory has become the most value-dense node in the AI stack. The Honam cluster and Nasdaq ADR, if executed, cement SK Hynix's position in US capital markets and Korea's place as the dominant AI-memory supplier through the decade.

What to watch

• The Nasdaq ADR terms and timeline.
• Samsung's HBM3e yield progress and whether Nvidia's next-gen orders shift allocation.
• The Honam/Gwangju cluster formal signing June 29 and government incentive details.
• KOSPI's broader reaction as the AI-chip premium reprices.