In South Korea, where a mountainous landscape makes building huge projects an incredible undertaking, the world's leading maker of high-bandwidth computer memory is investing $720 billion on what it says will be the largest network of memory factories in the world.
SK Hynix, whose market cap has jumped more than fivefold in the past year and now tops $1 trillion, is making a big bet that extreme demand from artificial intelligence is here to stay. Soaring prices exacerbated by capacity constraints are changing the fabric of the classic boom-and-bust industry, with AI chip giants like Nvidia willing to take on more risk as they scramble to secure supply.
The industry is reliant on just a few players. SK Hynix controlled 58% of the high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, market in the first quarter, followed by fellow South Korean giant Samsung and U.S.-based Micron, both at 21%, according to Counterpoint Research.
To help fund its ambitious buildout, SK Hynix, which trades on the Korea Exchange, reeled in $26.5 billion in July by listing shares on the Nasdaq, the most money ever raised by a foreign company listing on U.S. markets.
