SK Hynix Caught Between a $500 Billion Nvidia Pledge and a Brutal Seoul Sell-Off
Published on 07/25/2026 at 08:21 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A single trading day in Seoul laid bare the stark contradictions facing SK Hynix. The stock crashed 8.34 percent to close at 1,759,000 Won, wiping roughly 114 trillion Won from its market capitalization. Yet that same session brought news of a $500 billion partnership with Nvidia, a deal that cements the chipmaker’s role at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom.
The sell-off was anything but isolated. South Korea’s KOSPI index plunged 5.72 percent to 6,690.62 points, breaching the psychologically important 7,000 mark and triggering a five-minute trading halt via the sidecar mechanism — the fifth such intervention in a row. Foreign and institutional investors dumped a combined 5.2 trillion Won in equities, while retail buyers stepped in with 5.18 trillion Won of purchases.
Geopolitical jitters provided the spark. US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with a “massive attack,” sending Brent crude above $100 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate to around $92. The semiconductor sector bore the brunt of the panic: Samsung Electronics slid 7.59 percent, and SK Hynix’s American depositary receipts fell 6 percent to $158.56, dragging Micron, SanDisk, and Western Digital lower in sympathy.
A $644 Million Divorce Adds to the Pressure
Compounding the macro-driven rout was a domestic legal blow. Seoul’s appellate court ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his ex-wife, Roh Soh-yeong, a cash settlement of 944 billion Won — roughly $644 million. While the sum was reduced from the original 2024 ruling of 1.38 trillion Won, and the court excluded any contribution from illegal funds, the decision still rattled investors. Crucially, the payment is to be made in cash, leaving Chey’s 17.9 percent stake in SK Inc. — the holding company that controls SK Hynix — untouched. Much of that stake is already pledged as collateral for an existing loan. Both parties can still appeal.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
The legal overhang arrived on a day when the broader market was already fragile. Morgan Stanley had issued a bearish call on the semiconductor sector, adding to the downward pressure on both SK Hynix and Samsung.
The $500 Billion Nvidia Deal: A Counterweight to the Chaos
Against this turbulent backdrop, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a sweeping partnership with the SK Group during a meeting in San Francisco with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. The $500 billion commitment involves multiple conglomerates — SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, Naver, Hyundai, and LG — though the precise allocation among them remains unspecified. No official corporate statement had been issued by the weekend.
SK Group Chairman Chey described the figure as an “unusual number” but insisted it was grounded in realistic demand projections. The deal builds on a multi-year partnership between SK Hynix and Nvidia that was first announced in June. Under the expanded framework, SK Telecom will build a 2-gigawatt AI data center designed to run Nvidia’s Vera Rubin chips alongside SK Hynix’s HBM4 memory modules. The first construction phase is slated for 2027.
SK Hynix has already begun mass production of HBM4, which began in February, and has reportedly secured roughly two-thirds of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin orders. The company commands a 58 percent share of the high-bandwidth memory market, and together with Samsung, the two Korean giants control nearly 80 percent of the segment.
A 30-Day Slide Masks a Stunning Year
Despite the Nvidia tailwind, SK Hynix shares have suffered a brutal 30-day stretch, falling 31.82 percent from their late-June highs. Both SK Hynix and Samsung have shed more than 20 percent in that period as investors question whether the massive capital expenditures by big tech firms are sustainable. The relative strength index now sits at 40.1, indicating neither oversold nor overbought conditions, while the company’s market capitalization still stands at roughly 819.41 billion euros.
Yet the year-to-date picture tells a different story: SK Hynix is still up 170.74 percent, a testament to the euphoria that preceded the correction. The fundamental demand backdrop remains tight — HBM capacity for 2026 is already fully booked, and analysts expect supply-demand imbalances to persist through at least 2027.
Analyst opinions diverge sharply on what comes next. Morgan Stanley views the recent pullback as an “attractive entry point,” citing rising prices for data-center memory. KeyBanc expects supply constraints to last until 2027, while Evercore warns the imbalance could worsen further.
SK Hynix at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
Earnings Season Looms Large
All eyes now turn to July 29, when SK Hynix reports second-quarter results. The market expects revenue of $52 billion, split between $40.4 billion from DRAM and $13.1 billion from NAND. Samsung Electronics and Kioxia follow on July 30 and 31, respectively, with Kioxia expected to post a doubling of profit.
SK Hynix’s most recent quarterly figures showed revenue surging 198 percent to $35.5 billion and profit climbing roughly 400 percent to about $27 billion, with an operating margin of 72 percent. The HBM division alone tripled its year-over-year revenue in the first quarter. Micron’s strong guidance — a third-fiscal-quarter revenue jump of roughly 346 percent to $41.46 billion, with a forecast of about $50 billion for the next quarter — has further raised the bar.
The earnings report will test whether the margin-rich HBM business can justify the recent sell-off or whether valuation concerns are warranted. The Nvidia deal provides a powerful long-term narrative, but for now, SK Hynix remains hostage to the volatility that grips the entire AI chip sector.
A Warning on the US Premium
One additional risk lurks in the cross-border arbitrage. Owen Lamont of asset manager Acadian warned that SK Hynix’s US-listed depositary receipts have traded at a premium of up to 50 percent over the Seoul-listed shares — far above the historical norm of 2 to 4 percent for comparable conversions. He drew parallels to the dot-com bubble and the Infosys listing of that era. Korean retail investors had poured a net $500 million into the US securities through July 17. Starting July 29 — the same day as the earnings release — the conversion of domestic shares into depositary receipts will begin, a process that market observers believe could narrow the gap.
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