Chipmakers SK Hynix and Micron join $1tn club on surging AI demand

Chipmakers SK Hynix and Micron have each surpassed a $1tn (£740bn) market valuation, propelled by surging demand for advanced semiconductors used in artificial intelligence data centers [1]. Shares in South Korea's SK Hynix, a key supplier to AI chip leader Nvidia, jumped 10% on Wednesday, continuing a rally that has seen its share price more than triple since the start of the year [1]. On Tuesday, U.S.-based Micron's shares rose almost 20% after investment bank UBS tripled its stock price target for the company [1]. Micron, founded in 1978, is the only major American computer memory manufacturer and one of the 'Big Three' alongside Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix [3]. The companies now join an elite group of firms valued above $1tn, including Nvidia, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta [1]. The massive global demand for chips that power AI tools has created a memory chip shortage, boosting sales for leading manufacturers [1]. This demand is partly driven by successive generations of high-performance hardware; Nvidia's latest GeForce RTX 50 series, announced in early 2025, is based on its Blackwell architecture and manufactured by TSMC [2]. It succeeded the RTX 40 series, which launched in late 2022 [4]. Earlier in May, Samsung Electronics also joined the $1tn club, becoming only the second Asian firm to do so after Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC [1]. Samsung, like its rivals, is a major semiconductor manufacturer and counts Nvidia among its customers [1]. According to its corporate history, Micron itself reached the $1 trillion market capitalization milestone on May 26, 2026, amid the surge for its High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips [3].