What is SK Hynix? The AI Memory Giant Behind NVIDIA's GPUs

On 22 June 2026, something happened on the Korea Stock Exchange that hadn't occurred in 25 years and seven months: a new company sat at the top.

SK Hynix surpassed Samsung Electronics by market capitalisation, closing at ₩2,919,000 per share to edge ahead with a market cap of approximately ₩2,080 trillion (around $1.35 trillion). Samsung, which had held the crown without interruption since November 2000, fell to second place.

Here is the detail that makes this remarkable: in 2001, SK Hynix was trading at 125 Korean won. A penny stock. One of South Korea's most derided corporations, kept alive only by creditor bailouts. Today it has a larger market cap than Nike, Netflix, and Salesforce combined.

This guide covers what SK Hynix is, how it turned a near-bankruptcy into the greatest corporate comeback in Korean history, why its AI memory dominance is only getting stronger, and the most direct ways for investors to get exposure, including trading EWYUSDT perpetuals on BitMEX.

In this article:

• What is SK Hynix?

• Why is it called SK Hynix?

• What does SK Hynix make?

• SK Hynix stock: ticker, price, and performance

• SK Hynix valuation: PE ratio and analyst targets

• How to buy SK Hynix stock

• How to trade EWYUSDT on BitMEX

What is SK Hynix?

SK Hynix is a South Korean semiconductor company and the world's second-largest memory chip manufacturer. It produces the memory that goes inside servers, laptops, smartphones, and the AI GPUs that are reshaping the global economy.

It is headquartered in Icheon, South Korea, employs approximately 30,000 people, and operates fabrication facilities in South Korea, China, and the United States. It trades on the Korea Exchange (KRX) under the ticker 000660.

By sector, SK Hynix sits in semiconductors / information technology. It is a pure-play memory company. Unlike Samsung, it does not make phones, televisions, or home appliances. Its entire business is chips.

As of June 2026, it is South Korea's most valuable publicly listed company, with a market capitalisation of approximately $1.35 trillion.

Why is it Called SK Hynix?

The name is a two-part story. “SK” refers to the SK Group — one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates, with businesses spanning telecoms, energy, and semiconductors — which acquired the company in 2012.

“Hynix” is the older part of the name. The company was founded in 1983 as Hyundai Electronics, part of the Hyundai industrial group. Following the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, the Korean government pushed major conglomerates to consolidate. Hyundai Electronics merged with LG Semicon to form one of the world’s largest memory manufacturers. When the Hyundai Group fragmented under debt pressure, the chip division was cut loose and rebranded Hynix Semiconductor in 2001, a portmanteau of Hyundai and “nix.”

The company spent the next decade fighting for survival. Its stock fell to ₩125. It became a byword for corporate failure. Then SK Telecom bought in, renamed it SK Hynix, and changed the trajectory entirely.

The stock that was worth ₩125 in 2001 closed at ₩2,919,000 on 22 June 2026. That is a 23,000x recovery in 25 years. One of the most extraordinary corporate comebacks in modern economic history.

What Does SK Hynix Make?

SK Hynix’s business runs across three product lines.

DRAM is the largest by revenue

Dynamic random-access memory is the working memory inside every server, laptop, and phone. SK Hynix produces server DRAM for data centres, mobile DRAM for handsets, and consumer DRAM for PCs. Server DRAM pricing rose 83–95% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2026, driven by AI infrastructure buildout. SK Hynix is the world’s second-largest DRAM producer behind Samsung.

NAND flash is the technology behind solid-state drives

SK Hynix makes both enterprise SSDs (for data centres) and consumer SSDs, including the well-regarded Platinum P41 and Gold P31 product lines. It recently launched a 321-layer QLC-based cSSD. NAND is more commoditised than DRAM and carries thinner margins, but it is a meaningful part of the revenue base.

High-bandwidth memory (HBM) is where the entire investment thesis lives

HBM is the specialised memory that sits inside AI GPUs. It commands pricing that makes conventional DRAM look cheap. It is the product that drove SK Hynix’s operating margin to 72% in Q1 2026, surpassing even TSMC. Everything else in this article flows from this one product line.

The ASML → TSMC → SK Hynix → NVIDIA Supply Chain

One of the most-searched questions about SK Hynix is how it connects to ASML, TSMC, and NVIDIA. The answer is the supply chain that produces every advanced AI chip in the world.

ASML is the Dutch company that makes extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines used to etch circuit patterns at nanometre scale. Without ASML’s machines, no one can manufacture leading-edge chips. ASML is the toolmaker for the entire advanced semiconductor industry.

TSMC uses ASML’s machines to fabricate logic chips — processors, GPUs, AI accelerators — at its fabs in Taiwan. NVIDIA designs its H100, H200, and Blackwell GPUs but does not manufacture them. TSMC does.

SK Hynix uses similar lithography equipment to manufacture the memory dies that become HBM. Those dies are stacked vertically, connected through the package, and integrated with the logic chip to form a complete GPU assembly.

NVIDIA combines that package into its AI accelerators, which go into servers running the world’s large language models, image generators, and AI inference workloads.

The chain: ASML equipment → TSMC logic fab + SK Hynix memory fab → NVIDIA GPU package → AI data centre. Remove any link and the whole thing stops. That is why SK Hynix’s 62% share of the HBM market gives it such extraordinary pricing power.

HBM: The Memory the World Cannot Get Enough of

Standard DRAM communicates with a processor via a relatively narrow interface. For consumer applications — web browsing, office software, streaming — it is more than adequate. For training a large AI model, it is a bottleneck.

High-bandwidth memory solves this by stacking multiple DRAM dies vertically, connected by thousands of microscopic pathways called through-silicon vias (TSVs). The resulting stack sits directly on the GPU package, connected by an interface orders of magnitude wider than standard memory. SK Hynix’s HBM3E achieves 9.6 Gbps per pin and 1.15 terabytes per second of bandwidth per stack, approximately ten times what DDR5 delivers.

Every NVIDIA GPU used in AI infrastructure — H100, H200, B100, B200, and now Vera Rubin — requires HBM. There is no substitute. Only three companies in the world can manufacture it: SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron.

SK Hynix was the first to mass-produce HBM4 (September 2024) and is currently the only supplier simultaneously shipping stable volumes of both HBM3E and HBM4. It holds approximately 62% of the global HBM market. On 2 June 2026, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang publicly urged SK Hynix to produce more — a declaration of just how constrained supply is.

On 5 June 2026, NVIDIA confirmed all three memory makers passed HBM4 certification for the Vera Rubin accelerator. Certification is not supply volume. SK Hynix remains the primary supplier by a wide margin.

SK Hynix Stock: Ticker, Price, and Performance

SK Hynix trades on the Korea Exchange (KRX) under ticker 000660. There is no US-listed ticker yet. That changes with the upcoming ADR.

For investors outside Korea who want USD pricing, SK Hynix is quoted on OTC markets and on European exchanges including Frankfurt. Liquidity on these venues is thin.

The stock’s performance in 2026 has been exceptional. It is up more than 340% year-to-date. It hit a $1 trillion market cap in May 2026 — one of a handful of non-US companies to reach that level. It closed at ₩2,919,000 on 22 June 2026, up 5.61% on the day it overtook Samsung.

Analyst consensus target sits near ₩2.78 million, with Hanwha Investment & Securities setting the highest-ever domestic Korean price target at ₩4.3 million, implying roughly 47% upside from the June 22 close.

Q1 2026 Earnings: 72% Operating Margin

SK Hynix reported Q1 2026 results on 23 April 2026. No memory company had ever posted numbers like these.

TSMC — the world’s most admired chip manufacturer — runs operating margins of 40–50%. SK Hynix beat that by more than 20 percentage points in a single quarter.

Management’s forward guidance: “no memory peak-out.” Major customers’ demand exceeds SK Hynix’s total supply capacity by more than three years of forward bookings.

Forward PE is approximately 6.6x, versus Micron’s 10x+ and a broader semiconductor sector average of 20–25x. Revenue consensus for the next quarter sits at approximately ₩81 trillion.

The low PE reflects two things: scepticism about how long the HBM supercycle can last, and the structural discount applied to Korean-listed stocks (the “Korea discount”) due to governance concerns and the complexity of KRX access for foreign investors. If the discount compresses — partly through the ADR listing — the re-rating potential is significant.

SK Hynix and Anthropic

A detail that frequently surfaces in searches: SK Hynix invested $500 million in Anthropic as part of a Google-led funding round in late 2023.

The rationale was strategic as much as financial. Anthropic’s models run on AI hardware that depends on HBM. Having a direct stake in one of the world’s leading AI labs gives SK Hynix visibility into the infrastructure demand that drives its chip sales.

With Anthropic filing confidentially for a US IPO targeting October 2026, that $500 million stake has become considerably more valuable on paper, adding an AI software dimension to what is otherwise a pure hardware investment thesis.

The Samsung Overtake: What It Means

Samsung Electronics held the top spot on the KOSPI for 25 years and seven months, through the dot-com bust, the 2008 financial crisis, and every memory cycle in between. The overtake on 22 June 2026 reflects a genuine structural divergence.

Samsung is a diversified conglomerate. Smartphones, televisions, appliances, displays, and a foundry business sit alongside its chip division. In a normal market cycle, that breadth is a strength. In a cycle driven entirely by AI infrastructure spending, it is a drag. The market is pricing pure-play AI semiconductor exposure. SK Hynix is the clearest expression of that.

Samsung has also struggled with HBM yield issues: its chips have failed qualification tests that SK Hynix passed cleanly. It is certified for NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform and shipping HBM3E, but at a fraction of SK Hynix’s volume.

SK Hynix closed the session +5.61% at ₩2,919,000. Samsung closed -0.14% at ₩353,500. The KOSPI hit a record closing high of 9,114.55. When Samsung’s preferred shares (approximately ₩184 trillion) are included, Samsung still leads on total market cap. But on ordinary shares — the figure most investors reference — Korea has a new number one.

SK Hynix vs Samsung vs Micron

The HBM market has three core players and the standings are changing fast:

SK Hynix (~62% HBM share) is the undisputed leader. First to HBM3E at scale. First to mass-produce HBM4. The only player simultaneously shipping both generations in volume. Its NVIDIA relationship is the deepest. The primary risk to its position is capacity — not competition catching up, but whether SK Hynix can build fast enough to meet demand.

Samsung (declining HBM share) was once the inevitable number one. HBM yield problems pushed it to a distant second in this market. It is certified for Vera Rubin and shipping HBM3E, but at volumes that do not reflect its manufacturing scale. Internal restructuring is underway. The balance sheet is larger than SK Hynix’s, and Samsung is not going away. In this cycle, it is losing ground.

Micron (~20% HBM share) has overtaken Samsung and is growing fast. Its CFO stated the company is “sold out for 2026.” Micron holds 621 HBM-related patents vs SK Hynix’s 315. The larger patent holder is the manufacturing challenger — a notable inversion. It passed Vera Rubin HBM4 certification and is targeting a larger share of NVIDIA volume. It is the clearest long-term competitive threat to SK Hynix’s margin premium.

AI is consuming approximately 20% of total global DRAM capacity. That structural shift — away from PCs and phones, toward AI servers — sustains pricing power for all three players. But the HBM premium accrues most to whoever owns the deepest NVIDIA supply relationship.

Why Did SK Hynix Lose Value Before?

SK Hynix’s stock dropped sharply in 2022 and remained depressed through much of 2023. Understanding why matters for anyone trading it today.

Memory markets are cyclical. When demand exceeds supply, prices spike and manufacturers print money. When supply catches up, prices collapse. In 2022, PC demand fell off a cliff post-pandemic. Smartphone sales slowed. Data centre operators worked down inventory. DRAM prices fell more than 50% within twelve months. SK Hynix cut capex, reduced factory utilisation, and posted operating losses in late 2022 and early 2023.

The recovery from 2024 onward has been driven by AI infrastructure demand rather than consumer electronics — a structurally different demand source. But the 2022–2023 downturn is a reminder: SK Hynix’s earnings are not immune to demand shocks. The risks worth monitoring now: Samsung yield recovery, AI capex slowdown, Micron’s growing patent portfolio, US export controls on its Chinese NAND operations, and the fundamental cyclicality of memory pricing.

The US Listing: ADR and GDR Explained

SK Hynix submitted a confidential Form F-1 to the SEC on 24 March 2026. Reports point to an ADR launch as early as August 2026, pending SEC review. At approximately ₩15 trillion ($10 billion), it would be the largest-ever ADR listing by a South Korean company.

An ADR (American Depositary Receipt) is a USD-denominated instrument representing shares in a foreign company, trading on a US exchange. For SK Hynix, an ADR would trade on NYSE or Nasdaq in dollars, settling in USD, with no need for a KRX brokerage account or Korean won conversion.

A GDR (Global Depositary Receipt) is the European equivalent. SK Hynix already has limited GDR liquidity on the Frankfurt exchange for European investors. The GDR serves the same function as the ADR but trades in euros during European hours.

The ADR listing does not alter the underlying KRX stock (000660), which continues trading in Seoul. It makes the same economic exposure accessible to a much larger pool of global investors without the friction of KRX access.

Until the ADR launches, indirect routes remain the most practical for most investors.

How to Buy SK Hynix Stock

SK Hynix trades on the KRX. Direct access requires a KRX-connected broker, Korean won settlement, and foreign investor registration. There are cleaner alternatives:

OTC markets (000660): SK Hynix is quoted OTC in various markets outside Korea. Liquidity is thin and spreads are wide. Viable for long-term holders; not suited for active trading.

EWY (iShares MSCI South Korea ETF): EWY is the most liquid vehicle for Korean equity exposure globally. SK Hynix is its largest single holding at approximately 28% of the fund: every $100 in EWY gives roughly $28 of SK Hynix exposure. Samsung is the second-largest at ~25%. Together they represent over half the ETF. EWY trades in USD on NYSE Arca with over $24 billion in AUM.

EWYUSDT Perpetual on BitMEX: BitMEX lists a perpetual contract on EWY, letting traders go long or short on Korean equity exposure 24/7 with leverage. No custody, no FX conversion, no broker paperwork. A long EWYUSDT position is economically a leveraged bet on EWY, effectively a concentrated position on SK Hynix and the Korean AI semiconductor theme. For traders who want to act without waiting for Seoul or New York market hours, EWYUSDT is the most direct route available today.

How to Trade EWYUSDT on BitMEX

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FAQ

What is SK Hynix?

SK Hynix is a South Korean semiconductor company and the world's second-largest memory chip manufacturer. It makes DRAM, NAND flash SSDs, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) — the chips inside NVIDIA's AI GPUs. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Electronics and acquired by SK Group in 2012, it trades on the Korea Exchange under ticker 000660. As of June 2026, it is South Korea's most valuable publicly listed company at approximately $1.35 trillion, having overtaken Samsung Electronics for the first time in 25 years.

What does SK Hynix do?

SK Hynix manufactures three categories of memory chip: DRAM (working memory in servers, PCs, and phones), NAND flash (storage in SSDs), and high-bandwidth memory (HBM — the specialised AI memory). HBM is now its highest-margin product. SK Hynix holds approximately 62% of the global HBM market and is the primary memory supplier for NVIDIA's AI accelerators, including the H100, H200, and Blackwell GPU families.

What sector is SK Hynix in?

SK Hynix is in the semiconductor sector, classified under information technology. It is a pure-play memory chip company — unlike Samsung, it does not manufacture consumer electronics. Its entire business is designing and fabricating memory chips: DRAM, NAND flash, and high-bandwidth memory for AI workloads.

Does SK Hynix supply chips to NVIDIA?

Yes. SK Hynix is NVIDIA’s primary supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) — the specialised memory chips stacked inside NVIDIA’s H100, H200, and Blackwell GPUs. On 2 June 2026, Jensen Huang publicly urged SK Hynix to produce more HBM, a direct acknowledgement of how tight supply is. All three HBM manufacturers have now been certified for NVIDIA’s next-generation Vera Rubin platform.

What is SK Hynix’s stock ticker?

SK Hynix trades on the Korea Exchange (KRX) under ticker 000660. There is no US-listed ticker yet. A US ADR is expected to launch as early as August 2026, following a confidential SEC Form F-1 filing in March 2026, which would give the stock a USD-denominated ticker on NYSE or Nasdaq. A GDR already trades on the Frankfurt exchange for European investors who want euro-denominated exposure.

What ETF has the most SK Hynix exposure?

The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) has the highest SK Hynix weighting of any widely traded ETF, at approximately 28% of the fund. Samsung Electronics is the second-largest holding at around 25%. EWY trades on NYSE Arca in USD with over $24 billion in assets under management. Traders can also access EWY exposure via EWYUSDT perpetuals on BitMEX, 24 hours a day with leverage.

Why did SK Hynix lose value in 2022–2023?

Memory markets are cyclical. In 2022, post-pandemic PC demand collapsed and smartphone sales slowed, causing DRAM prices to fall more than 50% within twelve months. SK Hynix cut investment, reduced factory utilisation, and posted operating losses in late 2022 and early 2023. The recovery from 2024 has been driven by AI infrastructure demand — structurally different from consumer electronics — but the downturn demonstrates that memory pricing can move sharply in either direction, and SK Hynix’s earnings are not immune to demand shocks.