Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix stocks climbed on Monday as South Korean chip stocks extended Friday’s rebound, with a rally in US semiconductor names reviving appetite for the memory trade across the wider sector.
Samsung was up 4.21% by 11:20 am in Seoul, while SK Hynix gained 1%. The KOSPI rose 1.55% to 7,000.88, reclaiming the 7,000 level intraday for the first time in eight sessions.
Wall Street provided immediate support, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 2.78% on Friday.
But Samsung’s sharper gains also reflect investors reassessing its ability to challenge SK Hynix in high-bandwidth memory.
AI’s bottleneck is moving into memory
The broader case for both stocks rests on an increasingly tight memory market as AI infrastructure spending expands beyond graphics processors.
Kim Dong-won, head of research at KB Securities, told Maeil Business Newspaper that the supply constraint facing AI is shifting towards memory, networking, storage and power.
“As AI investment expands, memory demand increases, while supply elasticity decreases,” Kim said, adding that memory supply and demand could become tighter in 2027.
That matters because producing more HBM can also restrict output of conventional DRAM.
HBM requires large amounts of advanced DRAM capacity, meaning aggressive production for AI accelerators can tighten supply across servers and PCs at the same time.
Analysts also noted that major memory manufacturers were meeting only around 60% of customer demand, while inventories had fallen sharply.
The bullish argument is no longer simply that AI spending remains strong, but that memory could stay scarce for longer than investors previously expected.
Samsung is becoming a stronger HBM challenger
Samsung’s outperformance on Monday also reflects signs that the competitive balance in HBM is changing.
Seoul Economic Daily reported that Samsung’s HBM4 production yield has improved from below 60% during early mass production to around 80%, a level that should support larger-scale shipments.
Samsung expects third-quarter HBM4 revenue to more than triple sequentially and HBM4 to exceed 60% of second-half HBM revenue.
Counterpoint Research data showed Samsung captured 33% of global HBM revenue in the second quarter, up from 21% in the first.
SK Hynix remained the leader at 50%, but its share fell from 58%, narrowing the gap between the two companies to 17 percentage points from 37.
LS Securities has responded by raising its Samsung target to 450,000 won while cutting its SK Hynix target.
“It does not mean growth in the HBM market is slowing,” LS analyst Jung Woo-sung told Seoul Economic Daily. He described the shift as “a process of the competitive structure among suppliers normalizing.”
The pricing bull case still has a limit
The biggest risk is that tighter supply pushes memory prices far enough to weaken demand.
BNK Investment & Securities recently cut Samsung to Hold and lowered its target to 270,000 won. It also reduced second-half earnings estimates for SK Hynix, citing slower memory demand, pricing pressure and a stronger won.
“As the price of memory semiconductors within systems hits a ceiling, demand elasticity is weakening in servers following IT products,” BNK analyst Lee Min-hee told ChosunBiz.
That creates a clear divide around the rally. KB sees scarcity worsening, LS sees Samsung’s competitive position improving, while BNK sees pricing power approaching its limit.
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