SK Hynix Stock Just Hit Its Daily Limit in South Korea for the First Time Ever, Surging Nearly 30% as Asian Chip Stocks Recover

SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) has hit its first-ever intraday limit, surging 29.95% to 1.718 million won on Friday. The U.S.-listed American depositary receipts climbed 3.29% during the after-hours trading session on the NASDAQ.

The stock opened 28.37% higher at 1.697 million won and continued climbing to the Korean stock market’s 30% daily price limit. South Korea caps daily stock price moves at 30% up or down, a limit that was raised from 15% in June 2015.

The rally came a day after SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won bought 3,620 SK Hynix shares for 4.9 billion won ($3.41 million). After the stock hit its daily upper limit, the value of his purchase rose by roughly 1.3 billion won ($904,000) in just one day.

Meanwhile, Asian chip stocks rebounded sharply after a steep sell-off earlier this week driven by AI valuation concerns and rising competition from Chinese memory chipmakers.

The recovery was fueled by stronger-than-expected cloud earnings from two U.S. tech giants, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), sending the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) up 8.5% overnight.

AI Chip Boom Lifts SK Hynix

On Wednesday, SK Hynix reported record second-quarter results, fueled by booming demand for AI memory chips, though operating profit missed analyst estimates. Operating profit rose 557% year over year to 60.54 trillion KRW (about $43.2 billion), below the 64 trillion KRW (about $45.7 billion) expected by analysts. Revenue more than tripled to a record 79.32 trillion KRW (about $56.7 billion), while net profit climbed to 93.92 trillion KRW (about $67.1 billion), helped by non-operating gains. The company also posted a record 76% operating margin.

SK Hynix remains a key AI memory stock as analysts balance strong demand and tight chip supply against risks from pricing pressure, Chinese competition, and the recent semiconductor selloff.

Wolfe Research analyst Chris Caso remains bullish on memory stocks and said tight supply and strong AI-driven demand continue to support the sector, with meaningful oversupply unlikely before 2028 given the time required to build new chip manufacturing capacity.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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