Global Market: How SK Hynix's AI bet helped it eclipse Samsung in market value

SK Hynix briefly surpassed Samsung Electronics as South Korea's most valuable listed company, with market capitalisation approaching 2.1 quadrillion won, driven by its leadership in HBM memory chips used in Nvidia's AI accelerators. Shares have surged more than 340% this year, rebounding from a record annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won in 2023 to record operating profit in 2024. The company is preparing a potential U.S. share listing as early as August to expand its global investor base.