Chipmaker SK Hynix has climbed past Samsung Electronics to emerge as South Korea's most valuable listed company, according to data from the South Korean stock exchange Korea Exchange (KRX).
By midday on Monday, SK Hynix had reached a market capitalization of just under the equivalent of $1.36 trillion, slightly above the value of rival Samsung Electronics, which had topped the ranking of the country's most valuable companies since the turn of the millennium.
As recently as the 2000s, SK Hynix was on the verge of bankruptcy due to its high debts.
The tech group has since benefited from its early investment in the development of so-called high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. Demand for high-performance memory chips has exploded in the wake of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
The company, headquartered in the South Korean city of Icheon, is considered the most important supplier of HBM chips to U.S. market leader Nvidia.
The SK Hynix share price has risen sharply, by more than 300% since the start of the year alone.
