SK Hynix gains attention as AI-driven memory demand boosts its market share
South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest DRAM and NAND producer, is seeing its U.S. shares trade at a lower earnings multiple than rivals Micron and Sandisk, while controlling a majority of the high-bandwidth memory market.
Demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and NAND flash has risen sharply as generative AI expands, creating a supply bottleneck for data-center GPUs and solid-state drives. While Micron and Sandisk have posted strong stock gains, analysts highlight SK Hynix as a notable player.
SK Hynix, listed on the Nasdaq after a July 2026 IPO at $149 per American depositary share, now trades around $170. The company’s market capitalization is about $1.2 trillion and its shares are priced at roughly five times projected earnings for next year, compared with six times for Micron and seven times for Sandisk.
The firm controls more than half of the HBM market, having shifted to HBM3 production in late 2021 and now supplying over half of the current-generation HBM4 chips used in top-tier data-center GPUs. This position exceeds the market shares of Samsung and Micron, which typically hold 25-40% and 5-20% of HBM, respectively. SK Hynix is also expanding its NAND portfolio, ramping up high-capacity quad-level-cell enterprise SSDs and bundling them with its HBM products to offer integrated solutions for AI infrastructure.
Analysts project earnings per share to grow at a compound annual rate of about 107% from 2025 to 2028, suggesting significant upside if the company is re-rated as a high-growth stock.