Storage chips enter the strongest cycle in history, South Korea's chip giants' market value exceeds 1 trillion US dollars

Gelonghui, February 3rd | In Tuesday's trading, the combined market capitalization of Korea's two largest companies by market value—Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix—reached $1.11 trillion. This milestone highlights that the AI investment boom has shifted toward the infrastructure sector, benefiting Korean chipmakers at the core of the industry supply chain. Korea has positioned itself as a key supplier to global industry leaders such as Nvidia. Yiping Liao, portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Global Investment, stated: "Korea is highly concentrated in specific segments of the technology supply chain. The astonishing surge in the stock prices of Hynix and Samsung appears to be due to an unprecedented memory chip shortage cycle." Simon Woo, head of Korea research at BofA Global Research in Seoul, predicts that the memory chip supercycle will last until 2027. He said: "Memory chips have become a key strategic asset for U.S. tech giants, which is a stark contrast to earlier cycles when memory was merely considered a disposable component for PCs and smartphones. This shift has elevated the status of the memory industry." Timothy Moe, chief Asia-Pacific equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, expects the semiconductor sector to contribute about 60% of the expected earnings growth for Korean stocks this year.