SK Hynix Races to Slake Nvidia's Thirst: A €200M Gas Plant, a 48GB Memory Stack, and a Factory Fire That Didn't Faze the Foundry
04.06.2026 - 09:21:05 | boerse-global.de
The handwriting on the wafer has become the defining symbol of the AI chip supply chain's most acute bottleneck. At Computex in Taipei, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang grabbed a marker and scrawled "Please Make More" across a SK Hynix memory module. The plea was not mere theatre – it reflects a structural imbalance that is reshaping the entire semiconductor landscape.
Behind the autograph lies a technological leap that reinforces SK Hynix's grip on the market. The South Korean chipmaker unveiled its HBM4E memory at the same trade show, boasting a 12-layer stack that delivers 48 gigabytes of capacity per module. Bandwidth has surged to four terabytes per second – a density that previously required 16 layers. These next-generation chips are destined for Nvidia's upcoming Rubin Ultra graphics processors, with mass production slated for 2027. For the current generation, Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform is already in full serial production, and first shipments to cloud titans AWS and Microsoft will begin this summer.
Industry estimates give SK Hynix a commanding 60-70% share of HBM4 volumes, leaving Samsung with roughly a quarter and Micron the remainder. The dominance extends to the broader high-bandwidth memory space: in the first quarter of 2026, the company controlled 58% of the global HBM market. That market power translated into an operating margin of 72% – a record for the group.
To sustain that momentum, SK Hynix is pouring $12.9 billion into a new fabrication complex in Cheongju. French industrial gas specialist Air Liquide is backing the expansion with a nearly €200 million investment to build a state-of-the-art nitrogen facility on site, which will supply ultrapure gases for chip packaging from late 2027.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
The construction site was the scene of a brief scare on 1 June, when a fire broke out at the M15 and M15X plants. Around 3,600 workers were evacuated after toxic hydrogen fluoride gas escaped, and seven people were taken to hospital as a precaution. Fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze, and core production never halted. Analysts saw no threat to global semiconductor supply.
Goldman Sachs, for its part, has paid little attention to the incident. The bank nearly doubled its price target on SK Hynix shares to 3.5 million won, reiterating a buy rating. The reasoning: the bank expects memory capacity to remain extremely tight through 2028, covering both conventional DRAM and HBM. The entire HBM production for 2026 is already sold out, and some customers are paying full prepayments to secure allocations.
Those advance payments will soon appear in the accounts. Richard Clode, a fund manager at Janus Henderson, expects disproportionate earnings growth next year, when multi-year supply contracts are renegotiated at significantly higher prices.
SK Hynix at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
The stock has taken a short breather, slipping more than 3% in recent trading to 2.284 million won – a pullback that market participants attribute to profit-taking after a staggering 237% year-to-date rally. The shares sit about 5% below their 52-week high of 2.407 million won, leaving the underlying uptrend intact. For now, Jensen Huang's handwritten request seems to be the only thing that might slow the company down – and the writing on the wall suggests SK Hynix intends to comply.
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