Bloomberg
The breakneck surge in memorychip stocks is intensifying, sending the market capitalizations of SK Hynix Inc and Micron Technology Inc above US$1 trillion for the first time, as investors bet the artificial intelligence (AI) boom would lead to a sustained revaluation of the industry. SK Hynix rose 9.3 percent in South Korea yesterday, taking its 12-month gain to more than 1,000 percent and becoming the third Asian company to join the US$1 trillion club after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co. Samsung had crossed the milestone earlier this month. Micron soared 19 percent on Tuesday, the most since 2011, after a UBS Group AG analyst said the stock might double over the next year, while Samsung’s shares rose as much as 8 percent before paring gains to close up 2.3 percent yesterday.
The SK Hynix Inc logo is pictured at the World IT Show in Seoul on April 22.
The three leading makers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) now sit at the chokepoint of the global AI buildout, with their products forming a critical bottleneck for data-center expansion. Analysts expect memory shortages to last through next year, giving them unusual pricing power over the world’s largest technology companies. In the fourth quarter of last year, SK Hynix controlled 57 percent of global HBM market share by revenue, Counterpoint Research’s data showed. Samsung and Micron followed with 22 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
