SK Hynix's $1.06 Trillion Paradox: Jensen Huang's Wafer Plea and the Foreign Exodus
03.06.2026 - 15:22:36 | boerse-global.de
The scene was tailor-made for a market where demand outpaces everything else. At Computex 2026 in Taipei, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang walked up to an SK Hynix HBM4E wafer, grabbed a marker, and scrawled three words: "Please Make More." It wasn't a friendly gesture — it was a supply-chain cry for help. The message landed just days after the South Korean memory giant crossed the $1 trillion market-cap threshold, touching around $1.06 trillion on June 2.
That milestone, however, sits awkwardly alongside a steady foreign sell-off. For 18 consecutive trading days, overseas investors have been net sellers of Korean equities, pulling out roughly 60 trillion won ($43 billion) since May. SK Hynix has absorbed the brunt: 25.58 trillion won of that exodus — over 42% — belongs to its stock alone. Add Samsung Electronics and the pair account for 83% of the total outflow. Market watchers call it tactical profit-taking after a year-long rally that sent the shares up more than 1,000%, not a structural retreat from semiconductors.
Behind the valuation stands a set of numbers that leave little room for doubt. In the first quarter of 2026, SK Hynix posted an operating profit of 37.61 trillion won (roughly $25 billion), a staggering 405% jump from the same period last year. Revenue nearly tripled to 52.58 trillion won, and the operating margin hit 72%. The engine is High Bandwidth Memory: HBM now accounts for about 30% of all DRAM shipments, a share expected to climb to 41% of DRAM revenue by year-end. SK Hynix controls 58% of the HBM market, feeding Nvidia's HBM3E chips into its Vera Rubin platform, which is slated for full production in the second half of 2026.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won responded to Huang's plea with a sweeping capacity target: double the entire wafer production base within five years. He framed the shift as a transformation from a conventional chipmaker into what he calls an "AI fab," warning that the global memory shortage is structural and will persist through 2030. That timeline aligns with the next-generation HBM5 war now heating up between the two Korean rivals.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
Samsung showed off the first HBM5 prototype in Taipei, complete with a proprietary HPB cooling concept. SK Hynix countered with its "iHBM" technology, claiming a 30% improvement in heat dissipation. Validation with major AI integrators is underway, and mass production is penciled in for 2028 to 2030. Whoever wins that approval cycle will likely define the market leadership for the rest of the decade.
The broader memory landscape is riding the same wave. Global NAND flash revenue hit a record $46 billion in the first quarter of 2026 — 3.5 times the prior year's level. Enterprise SSDs now make up 43% of that market, fueled by "agentic AI" workloads. SK Hynix holds the second spot with 18% share, trailing Samsung at 29%, while Chinese rival YMTC has climbed to 13%. Analysts expect enterprise NAND to surpass 60% of total NAND sales by the end of 2026.
Yet the stock's trajectory is not without turbulence. On June 3, the KOSPI index swung nearly 5% in just six minutes, unnerving traders. Foreign investors' cumulative net selling has erased some of the euphoria. Goldman Sachs, however, remains bullish: the bank lifted its 12-month KOSPI target to 12,000 points, calling semiconductor profits a "century-level opportunity" and forecasting 320% operating earnings growth for Korean corporates in 2026.
SK Hynix at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
In Frankfurt, SK Hynix depositary receipts closed Wednesday at €1,385.00, up 0.72% on the day — a mild bounce that hardly resolves the tension between Huang's plea for more and the foreign retreat. The race for HBM5 will ultimately decide whether SK Hynix can keep its trillion-dollar crown.
Ad
SK Hynix Stock: New Analysis - 3 June
Fresh SK Hynix information released. What's the impact for investors? Our latest independent report examines recent figures and market trends.
