KB Securities raised its target price on SK Hynix to 3 million Korean won, implying a market capitalisation of around $1 trillion and positioning the memory chipmaker to become only the second South Korean company to reach that milestone.
KB Securities maintained its Buy rating on the stock, while also lifting operating profit estimates for the second quarter and the year.
SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660) had a market capital of 1.276 trillion won, or $852 billion, as of May 16. The company stands to become the second South Korean firm to hit a $1 trillion valuation, after memory chip rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KS:005930).
The KB Securities upgrade was driven by sharply higher price forecasts for DRAM and NAND chips. KB Securities projected average selling prices for the two product types to rise 194 percent and 244 percent respectively in 2026, fuelled by surging demand from artificial intelligence data centres.
AI operators were said to account for 70 percent of total memory shipments. SK Hynix and Samsung have benefited greatly from an upswing in memory demand over the past year, which saw prices of their products rise sharply.
Kim said token usage at four major technology companies rose three times in six months and seven times year on year, as agentic AI applications drove heavier consumption of memory resources.
The broker said SK Hynix was entering what it called a de facto zero-supply era, with no new memory production lines expected to come online before 2027. Long-term supply contracts running through 2028 to 2030 were said to resemble a foundry model, reducing earnings volatility and supporting a re-rating of the stock.
For 2026, KB Securities ranked SK Hynix first globally by operating margin at 78.1 percent, ahead of Nvidia and Saudi Aramco.
Capital spending by the four largest technology companies was forecast to rise 77 percent to $725 billion in 2026 and surpass $1 trillion in 2027. Kim said AI investment had become a survival requirement rather than a discretionary cost, suggesting demand for memory had no foreseeable ceiling.
source https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/sk-hynix-is-set-to-become-the-2nd-korean-company-to-hit-1-trln-market-cap-4694482
