The orders are overflowing, clients are offering to buy production equipment themselves, and every last bit of the company’s 2026 HBM output is already spoken for. Yet none of that shielded SK Hynix from a brutal market reckoning. The stock closed at 2,070,000 won on Friday after a single-day plunge of 9.92%, erasing more than 12% from its all-time high hit just three days earlier.
The trigger came not from Seoul but from California. Broadcom’s downbeat forecast for its own AI chip business — $16 billion in expected revenue versus the $17.2 billion analysts had hoped for — sent shockwaves through the semiconductor sector. Foreign investors dumped over $3 billion worth of South Korean equities in a single session, forcing the KOSPI to trigger an automatic trading halt.
Despite the rout, the chipmaker’s operational story remains red-hot. Nvidia has certified SK Hynix’s HBM4 memory for its upcoming Vera Rubin AI platform, locking in a critical supply win. The South Korean firm now commands an estimated 60% to 70% of the high-bandwidth memory market, ahead of rivals Samsung and Micron. Samples of the even more advanced HBM4E chip are slated to reach customers in the second half of this year, with commercial production due in 2027.
To keep up with insatiable demand, management has executed a dramatic strategic U-turn. Earlier this year it ruled out a significant expansion of wafer production; now it plans to double capacity over the next five years. In Yongin, construction on the first of four planned mega-fabs has been moved up, with groundbreaking set for February 2027. The total investment in that initial facility alone: 31 trillion won ($24 billion). Industry sources say some desperate customers are even offering to front the cost of new production lines by buying their own chip-making machinery.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
The capex splurge is matched by a push to broaden the shareholder base. SK Hynix is preparing to list American depositary receipts (ADRs) in the United States, possibly as soon as this year. About 2% to 3% of the company’s shares would be converted into ADRs, opening the door to U.S. pension funds that cannot hold purely Korean-listed stocks. The move comes after the company’s market capitalization briefly breached the $1 trillion mark in late May.
The selloff, however, reflects a market that is increasingly jittery about valuations after a staggering run. The stock has still gained roughly 205% since the start of the year, and profit-taking was widely expected after Tuesday’s record high. A weakening South Korean won added to the pressure, dragging down export-heavy names across the board.
SK Hynix is due to report its next quarterly results at the end of July. Until then, the acute supply-demand imbalance in advanced memory chips should provide a fundamental floor under the shares — even if short-term sentiment remains as volatile as the AI boom that fuels it.
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