SK Hynix, South Korea's high-bandwidth memory leader, is committing $720 billion to what it says will be the world's largest memory manufacturing network. The company's market cap has surged more than fivefold in the past year to exceed $1 trillion, driven by soaring AI infrastructure demand and a global HBM shortage. SK Hynix dominates the HBM market with 58% share in Q1 2026, followed by Samsung and Micron at 21% each, according to Counterpoint Research.
The company recently raised $26.5 billion in July through a Nasdaq listing—the largest capital raise ever by a foreign company on U.S. markets—and has signed 10 long-term supply agreements with major customers. NVIDIA secured a $500 billion deal with SK Group (SK Hynix's parent) in July covering a 2-gigawatt AI factory in South Korea and long-term HBM co-development and supply. The Yongin Cluster, SK Hynix's first major fab expansion, will reach 50-story height with six cleanrooms and begins production in February 2027.
SK Hynix is betting that AI demand is structural, not cyclical. SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won told CNBC: "Everybody wants to buy the memory chips. Without that, they cannot produce their AI computing and AI chips." The buildout addresses a critical supply bottleneck; even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sent a message on an HBM4 wafer reading "Please make more." Industry analysts note all major tech executives from Microsoft, Google, and Meta are in Korea negotiating long-term supply contracts as memory becomes the binding constraint on AI infrastructure expansion.