SEOUL, June 8, 2026, 17:12 (KST)
- SK Hynix finished the day 7.68% lower at 1,911,000 won in Seoul.
- KOSPI fell 8.3% after circuit breakers hit, as chip stocks tumbled.
- Nvidia has struck a multi-year memory supply deal with SK Hynix, but AI stocks took a hit on rate concerns.
SK Hynix Inc. shares dropped hard on Monday, hit by a selloff in South Korea tech stocks despite Nvidia expanding its partnership with the memory-chip company.
The stock finished at 1,911,000 won, falling 159,000 won, or 7.68%. Shares moved between 1,855,000 won and 2,072,000 won during the session. Volume reached 6.51 million. Google Finance shows a market cap of about 1,362 trillion won for the company.
SK Hynix is seen as a key stock for investors betting on AI memory demand. The KOSPI dropped 8.3% to 7,484.41, its sharpest one-day drop since March 4, after stronger U.S. jobs numbers spurred expectations for a Fed rate hike and sparked a wave of selling in tech.
Trading in Seoul wrapped up before the dateline. According to Korea Exchange, the regular session goes from 09:00 to 15:30 KST. After-hours trading is open 15:40 to 18:00.
It wasn’t a company story. Samsung Electronics lost 10.2%, with rival SK Hynix also hit. Losses in the Nasdaq—down 4.2%—and a 10% drop in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on Friday pushed Asian tech stocks lower. Trading was halted after the open as a circuit breaker kicked in, pausing market action.
Nvidia said Monday it signed several deals in South Korea with SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Naver, Doosan, LG Group and Hyundai Motor. SK Hynix and Nvidia are teaming up on a multi-year tech partnership aimed at advanced memory for AI data centers worldwide, the companies said.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said SK Hynix is still Nvidia’s biggest memory partner and will keep that spot. He said Nvidia already spends “billions and billions of dollars” a year on SK Hynix products, and that number will rise. Reuters
The HBM partnership is key for the SK Hynix bull case. High-bandwidth memory lets AI processors transfer data faster by stacking memory chips. SK Hynix told investors last week it sees strong HBM pricing sticking around into next year. Demand for Nvidia’s new platform could squeeze the wider memory market from 2027, the company said.
Huang said Sunday the memory shortage will stretch on for “quite a few years,” with strong demand for wafers, packaging and silicon photonics. The technology moves data using light inside advanced computing systems. Reuters
Han Ji-young, analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said investors had a reason to reduce positions after U.S. jobs data and the strong run in semiconductor shares. “Volatility is inevitable,” Han said, but doesn’t see a several-day selloff with valuations less stretched and chip earnings still strong. Reuters
Foreign outflows continued to weigh on the market. Offshore investors were net sellers of 355 billion won in local stocks, stretching their selling run to 21 days. The won bounced back to 1,533.7 per dollar after dropping to 1,615.0 on Friday, its lowest reading since 2009.
The risk is the AI memory story keeps going but the market stops bidding it up. If U.S. rate jitters stay in play and growth stocks stay under pressure, or if the semiconductor trade gets too crowded, SK Hynix could stay exposed, even with Nvidia demand still heading higher.
