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The reason SK Hynix’s stock price rocketed from the 200,000 won range to the cusp of 3 million won in just a single year lies in its dominance over the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market—the so-called AI memory at the absolute epicenter of the industrial shift triggered by generative AI. Its first-quarter operating profit margin of 71.5% is a figure virtually impossible for a manufacturing enterprise, reflecting a reality where the company literally commands whatever price it names. This serves as proof that global tech giants are not begging SK Hynix to sell memory "cheaper," but rather to supply "more." Industry insiders attribute this windfall to more than a decade of unyielding HBM research. The company’s remaining challenge is to sustain this dominance all the way through to the next-generation HBM5.

According to semiconductor industry sources on June 22, SK Hynix supplied samples of HBM4E to major clients this month, putting it on the verge of full-scale mass production. Last month, the company unveiled its thermal-optimized memory solution, "iHBM" technology, announcing plans to implement it starting with next-generation products like HBM5. This indicates that the development of HBM5 is already well underway.

Following its initial breakthrough development of HBM, SK Hynix has continuously racked up "world's first" milestones. After introducing HBM to the world through a joint research initiative with AMD in 2013, the company became the first to develop and mass-produce HBM3. It subsequently achieved the world's first mass production of HBM3E, and became the first to fast-track the delivery of 12-layer HBM4 samples to customers.

The decisive factor was the company's steadfast commitment to development in the early days, despite a microscopic market and highly uncertain profitability. When collaborating with AMD, there were no established standards, making the process akin to painting on a blank canvas. Although engineers focused on simultaneously boosting capacity and data transfer speeds, the product's speeds were deemed "unnecessarily fast" back in the 2010s. Skepticism persisted even as HBM2 hit the market. However, by the mid-2020s, the market matured at breakneck speed as competition intensified among AI corporations. In August 2023—just four months after developing the 12-layer HBM3 with the world's highest capacity at the time in April 2023—SK Hynix unveiled HBM3E, dramatically slashing the time required to bring products to market.

The current market landscape signals that DRAM prices, alongside HBM, will continue their upward trajectory. According to market research firm TrendForce, the DRAM supply deficit has spilled over to DDR2 products. Consequently, DDR2 contract prices are projected to surge by 55% to 60% in the second quarter, followed by an additional 35% to 40% hike in the third quarter.

Wall Street and domestic brokerages currently estimate SK Hynix’s operating profit for this year at around 262 trillion won, with an operating profit margin reaching 76.6%. While its stock price eyes the 3 million won mark, target prices as high as 4.3 million won have surfaced. Attention is now turning to whether this momentum will impact its upcoming American Depositary Receipt (ADR) listing scheduled after July. The industry expects SK Hynix to raise approximately 40 trillion won through the ADR listing. Above all, the move is significant as it allows the firm to have its corporate value re-evaluated in the United States, the world's largest market for AI.

Meanwhile, a surge in SK Hynix's stock price on the day briefly propelled it to the number one spot in market capitalization based on a single stock class during intraday trading. However, when factoring in Samsung Electronics’ preferred shares, the market cap gap between the two rivals remains wide. As of the closing bell, Samsung Electronics’ combined market cap, including preferred shares, stood at approximately 2,246 trillion won, while SK Hynix trailed at 2,080 trillion won.

                                                                                                            Ahn So-yeon