The market board at Hana Bank’s dealing room in Jung District, central Seoul, displays the KOSPI index and other indicators on Dec. 8. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Shares of South Korea’s two largest memory chipmakers rose sharply on Monday amid mounting expectations for robust fourth-quarter earnings, reflecting renewed investor confidence in the artificial intelligence–driven semiconductor cycle.
SK hynix closed 6.07 percent higher at 577,000 won on the Korea Exchange, recovering the 570,000-won level for the first time in roughly two weeks and briefly touching 580,000 won during intraday trading. Samsung Electronics gained 1.01 percent to finish at 109,500 won, having briefly reached 110,000 won — the highest level in a month.
The rally followed a broader upswing in U.S. equities late last week after inflation readings met expectations, bolstering hopes for rate cuts. South Korean brokerages also fueled buying momentum with upgraded earnings forecasts for the two chipmakers.
LS Securities raised its price targets for Samsung and SK hynix to 140,000 won and 700,000 won, respectively, citing stronger memory pricing. Analyst Cha Yong-ho projected Samsung’s consolidated fourth-quarter operating profit to reach 18.6 trillion won, well above the market consensus of 14.8 trillion won, while SK hynix’s operating profit was forecast to hit 16.1 trillion won, outpacing the 14.4 trillion-won consensus.
SK hynix is expected to remain the biggest beneficiary of surging demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence systems, analysts said. Samsung, which entered the HBM market later than its rival for Nvidia products, is seen gaining from broader diversification as demand increases from Google’s custom tensor processing units.
South Korea’s two semiconductor powerhouses, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
Analysts anticipate sustained earnings growth for the industry. Kim Dong-won, head of research at KB Securities, said the global AI hardware ecosystem is shifting from Nvidia’s dominant GPU model toward platforms built by Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Shipments of Google’s TPUs could rise nearly fivefold by 2028, he said, driving demand for AI-grade memory.
With U.S. chipmaker Micron’s HBM production capacity only about one-third that of its Korean rivals, Samsung and SK hynix could supply more than 90 percent of HBM used in proprietary AI chips from North American tech giants, Kim added. “The ultimate winners of the AI expansion cycle will be Samsung and SK hynix,” he said.
Valuations, however, remain a differentiating factor. SK hynix is already trading above its historical price-to-book range, reflecting expectations of stable HBM earnings, while Samsung’s forward price-to-book ratio stands at 1.4, suggesting room for further re-rating as its HBM business scales.
In the near term, investors are watching quarterly results from Oracle and Broadcom, due later this week in Seoul. Any earnings disappointment could rekindle concerns about an “AI bubble” and trigger a correction in chip stocks.
“The key for Oracle is whether it can demonstrate profitable, margin-driven growth and efficient AI infrastructure spending,” said Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. “The market will look to Oracle to decide whether the AI rally can continue uninterrupted or pause for consolidation.”
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
