SK Hynix Scraps Degree Requirement in Talent War as Shares Rally 28% on AI Demand
20.06.2026 - 12:56:35 | boerse-global.de
The race for dominance in high-bandwidth memory is playing out on two fronts at SK Hynix — in the stock market and in the hiring room. While the South Korean chipmaker’s shares have surged more than 28% this week, reaching 2,764,000 won at Friday’s close, the company has also taken the unusual step of eliminating its bachelor’s degree requirement for new engineers. The move comes as the battle for semiconductor talent intensifies, with local industry bodies warning that SK Hynix risks becoming a "black hole" for domestic specialists.
The stock’s weekly gain of 28.56% — following a near-3% advance on Friday — has been fuelled by sustained foreign buying. International investors snapped up 86.3 billion won worth of SK Hynix shares on June 18, marking the sixth consecutive net purchase day since June 11. Notably, the broader Korean market did not display the same pattern: while foreigners were net buyers, retail investors and institutions were selling. On June 17 alone, institutions bought 849.6 billion won of the stock, while retail dumped around 991 billion won.
Against this backdrop, the company has been pushing its AI memory ambitions into overdrive. Just this week, SK Hynix delivered first samples of its 12-layer HBM4E chips to customers, offering 48 gigabytes of capacity and improved thermal management. The samples solidify the firm’s 58% market share in high-bandwidth memory and reinforce its status as a key supplier in the artificial intelligence supply chain. Chairman Chey Tae-won has forecast that an AI-driven memory crunch could persist until 2030, and the company plans to double its wafer capacity for memory chips within five years.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
The personnel moves have added another layer of intrigue. Lee Seok-hee, a former SK Hynix CEO, has joined Intel to lead advanced packaging at Intel Foundry, sparking speculation of closer collaboration between the two companies on HBM logic chips and interconnect technologies. At home, SK Hynix has dropped its mandatory bachelor’s degree requirement to attract experienced engineers from rivals, with the application window for its current hiring spree closing on June 23.
Analysts have taken note of the momentum. Eugene Investment & Securities raised its price target on SK Hynix to 3.7 million won, citing rising earnings expectations in high-bandwidth memory. SK Securities, meanwhile, sees a high probability of expanded shareholder returns, following market chatter about a potential 100 trillion won payout plan. SK Hynix has clarified that it is reviewing various measures to enhance shareholder value but has not committed to any specific figure. The company has also applied for a U.S. ADR listing, as confirmed by Chey Tae-won at Computex in Taipei.
Despite the bullish sentiment, the stock is showing signs of overheating. The relative strength index sits at 73.5, firmly in overbought territory, while the annualised 30-day volatility has surged to 95.93%. From its 52-week low of 491,500 won in October, the stock has more than quadrupled — a gain of over 460%. The current price sits just 4.4% below the 52-week high of 2,891,000 won set on June 19.
Even so, the rally has begun to reshape the competitive landscape. For the first time in more than a decade, the gap between SK Hynix’s market capitalisation and that of archrival Samsung has fallen below 100 trillion won. With HBM4E samples already in customer hands and an aggressive talent strategy in place, SK Hynix is tightening its grip on the AI memory market — and putting its crosstown rival under growing pressure.
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