The South Korean financial market reached a historic milestone on February 19 as the Kospi index surged over 3% to a record high of 5,677.25. This rally was spearheaded by semiconductor titan Samsung Electronics, which touched a new all-time peak following reports of aggressive pricing for its next-generation memory chips.
The primary catalyst is the surging price of HBM4, which has reached approximately $700 per unit—a 20% to 30% increase over the previous generation. Samsung, which commenced mass production on February 12, is leveraging a global supply shortage to bolster its bargaining power. Profitability for general-purpose DRAM has also improved to levels comparable with HBM, allowing Samsung to optimize production across its portfolio for maximum gain.
Financial projections for the “30 trillion won era” are now within reach. Analysts estimate that Samsung’s first-quarter operating profit could hit 32 trillion won. Furthermore, Morgan Stanley forecasts Samsung’s total annual operating profit at 245.7 trillion won, representing a 464% year-on-year increase.
This domestic surge tracked a broader recovery in U.S. tech stocks, where sentiment was bolstered by Meta Platforms’ commitment to deploy millions of Nvidia processors. Within the Kospi, the gains were broad-based; while Samsung climbed as much as 5.4%, heavy industry also thrived, with Hyundai Heavy Industries surging over 7%.
Despite the equity boom, Samsung faces internal pressure. The rising cost of memory is a double-edged sword, forcing the company to consider increasing the domestic price of its upcoming Galaxy S26 by up to 200,000 won to offset component expenses. As the AI era matures, Samsung’s challenge will be balancing its dominance as a global component supplier with the cost-competitiveness of its consumer hardware.
