AI Boom Propels SK Hynix and Micron Past $1 Trillion Market Capitalization

Seoul. The semiconductor industry has seen a big boom with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. With the increase in chip demand, chip manufacturing companies SK Hynix and Micron have reached the list of companies with a market capitalization of $1 trillion for the first time.

On Wednesday, South Korean company SK Hynix's share price increased by 10 percent. Since the beginning of this year, the company's share price has more than tripled. SK Hynix is a significant supplier to Nvidia, a leader in AI chip manufacturing. US memory chip maker Micron Technology's shares rose by approximately 20 percent on Tuesday. Micron's shares saw a sharp increase after investment bank UBS tripled its target for the company's share price.

With this, both these companies have now joined the list of American multinational technology companies with a market capitalization of $1 trillion, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta. The global demand for high-capacity chips required to operate AI tools has increased rapidly, leading to a surge in the share prices of related companies recently. In recent years, an extreme increase in demand has also created a global shortage of memory chips.

Earlier in May, South Korean company Samsung Electronics also entered the $1 trillion club. Samsung became the second Asian company to achieve this feat after Taiwan's chip manufacturer TSMC. Samsung is a major company in semiconductor production, and Nvidia is also among its customers.

The potential strike has been averted after Samsung's employee union voted in favor of the wage agreement, causing the company's shares to rise by more than 6 percent on Wednesday. Samsung's market value is currently around $1.34 trillion. Meanwhile, South Korea's main stock index, the KOSPI, has also touched a new record high.

Nvidia is considered to have benefited the most from the rapid investment in the AI sector. The company became the world's first company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion in October. However, some investors have warned of a bubble, or price surge, in AI sector stocks. They are concerned that the prices of AI-related companies may have risen excessively beyond their actual capabilities.