As of Monday's close, SK Square ranked third at a market capitalization of 155.8 trillion won ($103.8 billion), Hyundai Motor fourth at 141.08 trillion won and Samsung Electro-Mechanics fifth at 117.42 trillion won, according to Korea Exchange data excluding preferred shares. Two months earlier the order was reversed: on April 1, Hyundai Motor held third at 99.92 trillion won, while SK Square sat seventh and Samsung Electro-Mechanics around twentieth. SK Square has since more than doubled in value and Samsung Electro-Mechanics more than tripled, leaving Samsung Electronics and SK hynix entrenched at first and second on the AI memory boom.
The two climbers have risen for different reasons rooted in the same trade. SK Square's gain is largely a re-rating of its stake in SK hynix — and, increasingly, a regulatory side-effect: with domestic equity funds capped at holding 10 percent in any single stock, those unable to buy more SK hynix directly have turned to SK Square as an indirect route into the chipmaker. Samsung Electro-Mechanics, by contrast, has been lifted by earnings expectations, as demand for its multilayer ceramic capacitors and semiconductor substrates rises alongside AI server build-outs.
On SK Square, Kim Hee-jae, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said SK hynix accounts for a large share of the holding company's net asset value, and that under the single-stock ceiling, SK Square effectively functions as an "alternative investment" in SK hynix for funds that have reached their limit.
On Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Yang Seung-soo, an analyst at Meritz Securities, said market interest is spreading beyond substrates for memory and AI servers into passive components, including the capacitors known as MLCCs. "A move to raise prices is spreading, centered on general-purpose products, and there is growing consensus across the supply chain about the possibility of further MLCC price increases," he added, noting that Samsung Electro-Mechanics appears to have recently raised distribution-channel prices, with room for more depending on supply and demand.
Hyundai Motor, though overtaken, has held a steady course on brisk electric-vehicle and hybrid sales and a strengthened shareholder-return policy, and the market is watching whether robotics can drive its next leg higher. Ha Neul, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, called the automaker a front-runner in physical AI, including robotics and autonomous driving.
The reshuffling has come almost entirely through price rather than reported fundamentals, leaving the newly elevated names exposed to the same profit-taking question shadowing the broader market's record run. With the gaps between third, fourth and fifth still measured in tens of trillions of won, the order below the two chipmakers is likely to keep shifting in the sessions ahead.
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