By Kwanwoo Jun
SK Hynix's shares surged, tracking the overnight rally in shares of Nvidia, a major U.S. artificial-intelligence chip-making client.
The South Korean memory-chip maker's stock rose as much as 6.7%, on track for its largest daily gain in more than three months.
SK Hynix, a major supplier of advanced high-bandwidth-memory products for Nvidia, was one of the best performing Asian chip stocks on Friday. Its Korean chip-making rival, Samsung Electronics, was recently trading 1.9% higher, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was up 1.4%
These chip makers are all Nvidia suppliers, with SK Hynix currently dominating as the exclusive provider of the most advanced HBM products for the U.S. AI chip titan.
"It is estimated that SK Hynix's dominance in the HBM market will continue through 2025," Korea Investment & Securities analysts Minsook Chae and J.T. Hwang said in a note Friday.
They noted that SK Hynix remains ahead of its major rival HBM suppliers globally: Samsung Electronics hasn't yet supplied advanced HBM products to Nvidia while Micron Technology lags SK Hynix in HBM production capacity.
Nvidia gained 3% in U.S. trade Thursday, as investors continued to bet on its leadership in the booming AI chip market this year.
Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-03-25 0148ET