SK Hynix Faces a Defining Week as a $750 Billion Nvidia Deal Collides With a 32% Monthly Rout
Published on 07/26/2026 at 21:11 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The numbers coming out of SK Hynix right now tell two completely different stories. On one side sits a freshly confirmed supply agreement with Nvidia worth an eye-watering $750 billion, spread across five years and personally negotiated by South Korea’s president and Jensen Huang. On the other sits a stock that has shed nearly a third of its value in 30 days, closing Friday at 1,759,000 won after an 8.34% single-day drubbing.
The disconnect is stark — and Wednesday’s earnings report will determine which narrative wins.
Record Profits on the Horizon
Fourteen local brokerages polled by Yonhap Infomax expect SK Hynix to post an operating profit of 64.1 trillion won on revenue of 84.1 trillion won for the second quarter. That would mark the highest quarterly profit in the company’s history and push first-half operating earnings above 100 trillion won for the first time. The implied operating margin of 75% to 77% would roughly match the 75% achieved in the prior quarter, underscoring just how lucrative the AI memory boom has become.
The engine is unmistakable: high-bandwidth memory chips and enterprise SSDs for data centers. KB Securities estimates that big-tech clients and AI infrastructure operators now account for 70% of total revenue. The Nvidia deal, which a senior adviser to President Lee Jae-myung confirmed over the weekend in San Francisco, locks in that exposure for half a decade. The broader alliance involving OpenAI and Anthropic carries a combined value of $950 billion, with SK Hynix supplying the memory and advanced AI semiconductors.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
What’s Driving the Sell-Off
The stock hit an all-time high of 2,987,000 won on June 25. Since then, it has fallen 31.82% in a month, and at Friday’s close it sat 41% below that peak. The relative strength index of 40.1 suggests the shares are approaching oversold territory, but three distinct forces have been pushing them lower.
First, the ADR listing in New York on July 10 created a two-way arbitrage channel between Seoul-listed shares and U.S. depositary receipts. Initial euphoria gave way to rapid profit-taking, and the conversion window that opens on July 29 is already compressing the premium on the U.S.-traded paper, adding selling pressure in Korea.
Second, Alphabet’s latest quarterly report triggered a sector-wide rotation out of AI names. Worries about the sheer scale of capital spending by cloud hyperscalers have weighed on semiconductor stocks globally, and SK Hynix has not been spared.
Third, a Seoul court ruling on Friday ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay 944 billion won in a divorce settlement. While the sum is expected to be settled in cash to preserve his stake in the parent company, the judgment has injected an unwelcome dose of governance uncertainty at a moment when investors crave clarity.
A Strategic Pivot in Product Mix
Amid the price action, the company appears to be recalibrating its production roadmap. Reports suggest SK Hynix is considering diverting some planned HBM4 capacity toward DDR5 production, citing global shortages of standard memory chips. Industry sources note that DDR5 margins could reach 90% this year, potentially making the commodity DRAM business more profitable in the near term than the fiercely contested HBM expansion.
The implication is that HBM4 mass production may now slip to the third quarter of 2026, later than originally expected. For the first half of next year, HBM3E will remain the production focus. The shift highlights the delicate balancing act SK Hynix must perform: feeding the insatiable appetite of AI customers while not leaving money on the table in the broader memory market.
SK Hynix at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
What Wednesday Must Deliver
All eyes turn to the management presentation on July 29. Investors will be listening for two things above all: confirmation of the HBM4 validation timeline with Nvidia, and guidance on whether those record margins can be sustained. A day later, Samsung Electronics reports its divisional results, offering a comparative benchmark for the entire memory sector.
The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision on July 29 adds another layer of macro uncertainty that could sway sentiment across the semiconductor space.
For SK Hynix, the arithmetic is simple. If the earnings confirm a record operating margin and the Nvidia deal provides a clear revenue runway, the stock has a tangible catalyst for a technical rebound after a brutal month. If the governance overhang and ADR arbitrage continue to dominate the narrative, the gap between the company’s operational strength and its market valuation could widen further.
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SK Hynix Stock: New Analysis - 26 July
Fresh SK Hynix information released. What's the impact for investors? Our latest independent report examines recent figures and market trends.
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