South Korea’s SK Hynix enters exclusive $1 trillion club - Al Jazeera

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix has joined the exclusive group of companies valued at over $1 trillion, following a surge in demand for semiconductors driven by the AI boom. As the world's second-larg... Read original →

SK Hynix’s entry into the $1 trillion club stems from AI’s insatiable demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), not general market euphoria. Technically, its HBM3E is now integral to NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72 systems, accelerating DRAM scaling to 1βnm and forcing upgrades across lithography materials and advanced packaging supply chains. Geopolitically, U.S. export controls compel SK Hynix to restrict its Xi’an fab to mature nodes, concentrating cutting-edge output in Korea—raising capex and risk premiums. Micron is countering with Idaho-based HBM capacity, while Samsung bets on GAA transistors integrated with CXL memory. Over the next 18 months, as AI server capex peaks, HBM pricing may swing violently—but SK Hynix’s deep integration with TSMC’s CoWoS ecosystem secures a structural edge. This milestone signals more than valuation; it marks East Asia’s strategic foothold in the global semiconductor sovereignty race.