SK Hynix's rise to become South Korea's most valuable listed company marks the culmination of a long-term strategy centred on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a niche technology that has become indispensable in the artificial intelligence boom.
The company's journey began in 2012 when SK Group acquired Hynix Semiconductor in a deal widely viewed at the time as risky due to the semiconductor industry's cyclical nature. Back then, Samsung Electronics dominated the memory chip market and was valued at more than ten times SK Hynix.
