Samsung Electronics has ridden the AI chip frenzy to a $1tn valuation, joining TSMC in east Asia’s rarefied club.
The South Korean outfit’s shares surged as much as 12 per cent on Wednesday to a record high. That helped shove the Kospi benchmark through 7,000 for the first time, after the index jumped almost six per cent.
Samsung Electronics accounts for about a quarter of the Kospi. Its stock value has almost quintupled in the past 12 months, which is tidy work for a company once known mainly for cheap tellies.
The Kospi has risen more than 70 per cent this year after gaining 76 per cent in 2025. That was its biggest rise since 1999, helped by government market reforms and a lot of AI froth.
Wednesday’s milestone capped a ridiculous rise for the electronics outfit, now parked right in the middle of the AI boom. Founded in 1969 as part of Lee Byung-chul’s Samsung conglomerate, it built its name on appliances, televisions and later Galaxy smartphones.
Big Tech’s endless capex splurge has turned memory chips from a cyclical commodity game into a strategic economic kit. Samsung and SK Hynix make high-bandwidth memory chips that Nvidia and other big tech “hyperscalers” need to keep their AI machines fed.
Buyers are locking in years of HBM supply in advance. Prices for less advanced DRAM and NAND memory chips have been dragged higher by the same demand.
The boom has made Samsung Electronics one of the world’s most profitable companies. In the first quarter, it reported operating profit of Won57.2tn, about €33.2bn, or $39bn, more than eight times the same period last year.
Analysts reckon the shares may still have room to run. Life Asset Management, Chaiwon Lee said Samsung’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio stood at six times, compared with 25 for TSMC and 10 for Micron.
“This shows its shares are still undervalued and have strong upside potential, although long-term risks exist such as China’s growing market share, increasing capex and the possibility of AI spending slowing down,” Lee said.
