SK Hynix Hits Record High as Citi Lifts Target 82% on Memory Supercycle

TL;DR - SK Hynix hit an intraday all-time high of ₩1,972,000 ($1,323) on May 13 after Citi raised its target from ₩1.7M to ₩3.1M, an 82.4% jump. - Citi now models 2026 DRAM ASPs +200% year-on-year and HBM ASPs rising ~30% sequentially in Q4, lifting earnings estimates well above consensus. - Watch whether other Korean and global brokers follow Citi and KB Securities above the ₩2.5M mark in the coming sessions.

Lead

SK hynix (000660.KS), Korea's largest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supplier and a primary Nvidia HBM vendor, jumped 7.30% to a fresh all-time high of ₩1,972,000 ($1,323) on May 13 after Citigroup Global Markets Securities, the Korean broking arm of U.S. bank Citi, lifted its target on the stock by 82.4% to ₩3,100,000 ($2,081). Paired with a parallel hike from KB Securities, one of Korea's top domestic brokerages, the move is the first concrete signal that global sell-side desks now view the current memory upswing as a multi-year supercycle rather than a routine rebound.

What Happened

Citi raised its SK Hynix target from ₩1.7 million ($1,141) to ₩3.1 million ($2,081) and its Samsung Electronics (005930.KS, Korea's flagship chip and consumer-electronics maker) target from ₩300,000 ($201) to ₩460,000 ($309), maintaining a Buy rating on both, per Seoul Economic Daily. The May 12 report revised Citi's 2026 DRAM average selling price (ASP) forecast to +200% year-on-year (from +190%) and NAND ASP to +186% (from +172%), and modelled HBM ASPs climbing roughly 30% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 2026, per BigGo Finance and en.bloomingbit.io.

By 1:33 p.m. Seoul time on May 13, SK Hynix was trading at ₩1,969,000, up 7.30%, after touching an intraday record of ₩1,972,000, per Electronic Times (etnews), a Korean tech-industry daily. Samsung Electronics rose 1.70% to ₩283,750 ($190) over the same session.

KB Securities also lifted its SK Hynix target on May 12 — from ₩2.0 million ($1,342) to ₩2.8 million ($1,879), a 40% hike — with head of research Kim Dong-won noting "the pace of upward earnings revisions is outstripping the pace of share price gains," per Seoul Economic Daily.

Why It Matters

The Citi report is the first concrete signal that a global bulge-bracket bank sees memory pricing power persisting beyond a single fiscal year. An 82% hike with a ₩3.1M endpoint sits far outside the post-2018 norm for Korean memory names, and paired with KB's parallel call, it challenges the consensus that memory revenue strength would normalize once HBM3E supply caught up with Nvidia's Blackwell ramp.

The implications extend beyond a single stock. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together accounted for a record 42.2% of the KOSPI (Korea Composite Stock Price Index, the country's benchmark) in early May, per Korea Times — and on May 11 the index closed at a fresh high of 7,822.24, up 4.32% in a single session. Combined KOSPI and KOSDAQ (Korea's tech-heavy secondary bourse) market capitalization crossed ₩7,000 trillion ($4.7 trillion) the same day for the first time, per the same report, meaning any re-rating of the two memory leaders propagates directly into Korea's headline index.

Business Impact

The earnings backdrop helps explain the move. SK Hynix is projected to deliver Q1 2026 operating profit of roughly ₩35.91 trillion ($24.1 billion) at consensus, with Daishin Securities pencilling in ₩39.6 trillion and Mirae Asset Securities ₩38.9 trillion — both major Korean brokerage research desks — implying an ~88% sequential jump from Q4 2025's ₩19.1 trillion, per Seoul Economic Daily. KB's Kim projects Q2 2026 operating profit of ₩67 trillion ($45.0 billion), citing DRAM and NAND price increases plus HBM demand outpacing supply.

Samsung Asset Management, Korea's largest ETF house, said on May 13 it will rename its KODEX AI Semiconductor ETF — Korea's largest AI-chip-themed ETF — to "KODEX AI Semiconductor TOP2 Plus" and overhaul its index methodology to sharply raise Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix weightings, per Asia Business Daily.

Industry & Historical Context

Per Seoul Economic Daily, Q1 2026 saw DRAM contract prices rise 39.8% in a single quarter while NAND flash contract prices surged 208.8% — a pace earlier sell-side models had not anticipated. Citi's revised forecasts sit on top of what KB's Kim has called a structural shift driven by "Agentic AI"-based inference workloads expanding data-center memory budgets. Retail enthusiasm has followed: Maeil Business Newspaper, a Korean financial daily, reported a viral Japanese-investor screenshot claiming a ¥1 billion (~₩9.6 billion / $6.7 million) SK Hynix windfall on a position up roughly 720% since mid-2024.

What to Watch

• Whether other brokerages follow Citi and KB above ₩2.5 million in the coming sessions
• Q2 2026 DRAM and NAND contract-price prints, the principal swing variable
• Inflows into KODEX AI Semiconductor TOP2 Plus after the reweighting takes effect
• KOSPI concentration metrics — the Samsung-plus-SK Hynix 42.2% share is a multi-decade record per Korea Times

Sources: - Seoul Economic Daily (English) — https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/05/12/citi-sees-samsung-at-460000-won-sk-hynix-at-31-million-won - Seoul Economic Daily (English) — KB Securities target — https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/05/13/sk-hynix-target-price-raised-40-percent-to-28-million-won - Seoul Economic Daily (English) — Q1 operating profit — https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/04/07/sk-hynix-eyes-record-40-trillion-won-operating-profit-in-q1 - Electronic Times (etnews) — https://www.etnews.com/20260513000222 - BigGo Finance — https://finance.biggo.com/news/oENOHp4B-PfaobXfz82c - en.bloomingbit.io — https://en.bloomingbit.io/feed/news/111902 - Asia Business Daily — https://www.asiae.co.kr/article/2026051309053721173 - Maeil Business Newspaper — https://www.mk.co.kr/news/stock/12046026 - Korea Times — https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/amp/business/banking-finance/20260511/kospi-opens-at-fresh-high-on-chip-rally-amid-woes-over-breakdown-of-peace-deal

By LineVest Markets Desk — 2026-05-13This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.