Seoul, Feb 9, 2026, 00:57 KST — Premarket
SK hynix ended Friday at 839,000 won, slipping 0.36% after bouncing between 791,000 and 850,000 won in volatile trading. The company’s investor relations page put turnover at 5.58 million shares.
Why does it matter? SK hynix now serves as a kind of barometer for South Korea’s “AI hardware” trade, after a powerful rally lured global investors. “From Q3 onwards … it has now shifted really heavily to memory, which is a Korea trade,” UBS strategist Gerry Fowler told Reuters. Reuters
The landscape is only getting louder. A worldwide shortage in memory chips is now spilling over into the smartphone sector, as AI data centers keep soaking up inventory—driving up prices and squeezing makers of consumer devices. Apple boss Tim Cook flagged the issue to investors, warning of significant hikes in memory chip costs. “There are different levers that we can push,” he said. Reuters
The KOSPI dropped 1.4% in Seoul on Friday, breaking a six-week run of gains, according to Reuters. Shares of SK hynix and Samsung Electronics slipped roughly 0.4% each. Zavier Wong, market analyst at eToro, noted, “With U.S. tech wobbling, sentiments tend to trickle over to Asian tech as well.” Reuters
SK hynix is pushing further into premium memory, notably high-bandwidth memory (HBM)—that’s stacked DRAM paired with AI chips to speed up data movement—as buyers demand more compute power. Late last month, the company reported record annual results for 2025, crediting surging AI memory demand and other high-margin offerings like HBM.
SK hynix set a cash dividend at 1,875 won per common share, according to a regulatory filing. The dividend record date is Feb. 28.
Feb. 26 pops up as the ex-dividend date on market screens—so owning the shares before that should lock in the payout. The next earnings report? Market estimates put it somewhere near April 29.
Traders are weighing whether Friday’s drop was simple profit-taking after an overbought run, or if it signals the first crack in chip valuations. The stock has been tracking global tech mood, while investors argue over which players will come out ahead in the AI spending spree.
The flipside is pretty clear. Should AI capex slow down, or if memory supplies recover more rapidly than forecasts suggest, pricing leverage could vanish fast in an industry notorious for its sharp boom-and-bust swings. A dip in demand for consumer gear—phones or PCs—would just pile on, especially with competitors stepping up their push into the high-end memory market.
Traders will get their first look at SK hynix when Seoul trading kicks off Monday. Early moves in chip stocks are on the radar. After that, eyes shift to the Feb. 26 ex-dividend date and then late April, when SK hynix is set to report its next results.
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