The papers of South Korean SK Hynix and Samsung - two of the largest memory chip manufacturers - set new records at the first trading in South Korea after a week of holidays. Recent large deals in the field of artificial intelligence contributed to the jump in quotations.

Details

SK Hynix shares jumped 11% shortly after the opening of trading in Seoul on Oct. 10, and ended up 8.2%. Samsung Electronics shares rose 6%.

Investors bought these securities in the hope that both companies will benefit from the deal between OpenAI and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), in which Sam Altman's company may get up to 10% in the capital of AMD, notes CNBC. AMD shares reacted to the news of the deal with a rapid growth and this week added more than 40% in price.

SK Hynix leads in the production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are used by Nvidia and other companies in servers for training neural networks. Samsung dominates the markets for traditional DRAM and NAND memory chips and is trying to catch up with Hynix in supplying HBM.

What the analysts are saying

"Samsung's undervaluation is coming off the back of Nvidia's HBM memory supply prospects and continued heavy investment in AI," Bloomberg quoted NH Investment & Securities trader Sean Oh as saying, "Nvidia and Samsung are known to be in the final stages of negotiations on volume, pricing and delivery schedule.

Meanwhile, the DRAM and NAND memory markets, where Samsung is the leader, are expected to start a "super cycle" as supply shortages improve price forecasts, Bloomberg writes. Morgan Stanley analysts raised their target price on Samsung shares by 14% to 111,000 won ($78.1) during the holiday break, pointing to a sharp rise in the price of memory chips in the fourth quarter and robust demand that should last through 2026, setting the stage for "much stronger growth potential."

"For Samsung, its AI stardom has finally arrived," said Karobaar Capital Chief Investment Officer Haris Khurshid. - What's interesting is that this rally is not only due to the chips, but also to the faith of investors: they decided that Samsung would not miss this wave like it did in the beginning, and now everyone seems to be rushing to revalue the company [given the new prospects]."

Context

Significant growth in SK Hynix and Samsung stocks has made South Korea one of the top stock picks globally in 2025. According to FactSet, Wall Street is largely recommending SK Hynix and Samsung shares to buy, with consensus ratings of Buy and Overweight, respectively.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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