Market flipped: SK hynix overtakes Samsung in market value

Samsung is no longer South Korea’s largest corporation by market capitalization. Despite the shortage of components and extremely favorable market conditions for chip manufacturers, another South Korean technology brand has become the new leader of the industry. At the moment, the total market value of both giants is kept close to the mark of $1.35 trillion, but according to the results of stock market trading on June 22, the manufacturer of memory chips SK hynix recorded an advantage, becoming slightly more expensive than Samsung.

SK hynix has overtaken Samsung in terms of market capitalization

According to the results of the closing of the last trades, the shares of SK hynix, which has become the world’s largest specialized manufacturer of memory chips, have increased by 5.6%. This momentum increased the market value of the structure to a record 2080.4 trillion (about $1.35 trillion). In contrast, Samsung’s share price fell by 0.14%, adjusting the total value of its assets to 2,066.7 trillion.

 SK hynix vs Samsung

The most important difference of SK hynix lies in the narrow focus of production, which is almost entirely focused on the production of memory chips. At the same time, the giant Samsung, in addition to contract semiconductors, is actively diversifying its portfolio with the production of OLED displays, household appliances, TVs and consumer mobile electronics. The situation in the market shows that things in the mobile division of Samsung have not been quite successful lately.

At the same time, there is a gap in the issue of labor force incentives. Each of the mentioned firms regularly allocates funds to high corporate rewards, but the personnel of individual Samsung consumer electronics departments today receive bonuses almost 100 times lower compared to the volumes that the specialists of the brand’s chipmaking divisions managed to achieve under the serious threat of mass strikes.

History of the ascent and triumphant survival of SK hynix

The new dominance of the company is an exceptional case of the rehabilitation of a large technology brand after the brink of a complete fiasco. Originally known as Hynix Semiconductor, this business in the distant 2002 was actually one step away from being taken over by the Micron Corporation due to a colossal deficit of budgets in the wake of inefficient and excessively forced expansion of the past periods.

As a result, the sale did not take place, and the company existed at the expense of creditors for about 10 years, gaining a reputation among investors as low-value (“Dongjeon-ju”). Difficulties have haunted it for a long time: even as recently as 2023, a serious collapse in the wholesale price of memory forced the financial division to record a massive annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion. However, already from the following year, the indicators instantly increased against the background of the active recovery of the demand deficit and the large-scale takeoff of the high-tech market.