SK Hynix Hits $1.32 Trillion Milestone as HBM4E Samples Roll Out and Talent War Intensifies
20.06.2026 - 15:47:16 | boerse-global.de
SK Hynix has entered a new league. The South Korean memory giant became just the second company in the country—after Samsung Electronics—to surpass a market capitalisation of 2,000 trillion won, equivalent to roughly $1.32 trillion. The milestone caps a seven-day rally of nearly 29% that pushed shares to a fresh 52-week high of 2,891,000 won on Thursday, with the stock closing Friday at 2,764,000 won, less than 4% below that peak. Year-to-date, the stock has soared 308%, a gain that defies any explanation rooted solely in sector rotation.
The engine of this explosive performance is high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a market where SK Hynix commands a 58% share. This week the company shipped samples of its next-generation 12-layer HBM4E chips to key customers. Each stack packs 48 GB of memory and delivers more than 20% improvement in power efficiency over the previous generation, thanks to the proprietary MR-MUF technology that enhances heat dissipation and structural integrity. SK Hynix expects HBM demand to grow 30% annually through the end of the decade and warns that supply constraints for memory chips could persist until 2030, which is driving an aggressive expansion of production capacity.
On the corporate front, SK Hynix is exploring a US listing through an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program, possibly as early as August. SEC approval could come as soon as the week starting June 22, and the company has set an informal target of completing the ADR programme by 2026. The move would give global investors more direct access to the stock, which is already trading at an RSI of 73.5—technically overbought, but in an environment of structural AI demand, that indicator has lost some of its braking power.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
The battle for talent is escalating sharply. SK Hynix has eliminated the requirement for a bachelor’s degree for all new hires, both entry-level and experienced, effective immediately. The policy change accompanies a major recruitment drive focused on chip designers, with applications closing on June 23. Local industry associations have voiced concern that SK Hynix could act as a “black hole” for South Korean engineering talent, pulling in skilled workers from other domestic firms.
The executive landscape is also shifting. Former SK Hynix CEO Lee Seok-hee joined Intel this week to lead the advanced packaging division at Intel Foundry. Market observers believe the appointment could pave the way for closer collaboration between the two companies on HBM-logic integration and new interconnect technologies. The move underscores the strategic importance of packaging expertise in the AI era and highlights the fierce competition for top talent across the semiconductor industry.
The stock’s meteoric rise has dramatically narrowed the gap with Samsung Electronics. For the first time in more than a decade, the difference in market capitalisation between the two South Korean chip titans has fallen below 100 trillion won. With SK Hynix now valued at over $1.32 trillion, the company is closing in on its larger neighbour at a speed that few analysts predicted—a stark illustration of how AI demand is reshaping the pecking order in global memory chips.
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