HBM explosion reshapes the semiconductor industry landscape, SK Hynix's annual profit surpasses Samsung for the first time

SK Hynix's leading advantage in the HBM field is rewriting the competitive landscape of the South Korean semiconductor industry. The company's operating profit in 2025 is expected to surpass that of long-term industry leader Samsung Electronics for the first time, marking a new competitive phase in the global memory chip market.

Data released on Wednesday showed that SK Hynix's operating profit for the entire year of 2025 is projected to reach 47.2 trillion won, exceeding Samsung Electronics' announced 43.6 trillion won the following day. This marks the first time SK Hynix has surpassed Samsung in annual profit since being acquired by SK Telecom for approximately $3 billion in 2012. Samsung's memory chip division is expected to have an operating profit of about 24.9 trillion won in 2025.

The core driver of this performance reversal is the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market. SK Hynix has solidified its global leadership position in this field dedicated to AI processors and server-specific chips, securing a large number of orders from clients such as NVIDIA. Counterpoint Research estimates that SK Hynix's revenue share in the HBM market will reach 57% in the third quarter of 2025, while Samsung's will only be 22%.

For investors, this competition is far from over. Samsung is expanding its HBM sales and plans to begin delivering its sixth-generation HBM4 products this year. Analysts expect that SK Hynix will maintain a high market share and dominant position in the HBM4 market, but Samsung is expected to make substantial progress with its next-generation products.

AI Infrastructure Boom Creates New Winners

SK Hynix's success is built on its leading position in HBM technology. High bandwidth memory is a specialized chip used in AI processors and servers produced by companies like NVIDIA.

"SK Hynix is clearly Asia's outstanding 'AI winner'," said MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint Research, noting that the company's leadership in the quality and supply of HBM and other AI server chips is crucial during the current AI infrastructure boom.

SK Hynix has strategically positioned itself in the HBM market, securing the largest share of memory contracts from NVIDIA last year. According to local media reports on Wednesday, SK Hynix has secured more than two-thirds of the HBM supply orders for NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin products.

SK Hynix also holds a slight lead over Samsung in the broader DRAM market. DRAM, or dynamic random-access memory, is used for temporary data storage in computing devices such as personal computers, servers, and data centers. Hwang pointed out that even if Samsung regains the top position in memory revenue rankings in the fourth quarter of 2025, SK Hynix will still maintain its market leadership in both areas.

Samsung Strives to Break Through with Next-Generation Products

Competition is heating up. Competitors like Samsung and Micron have made some breakthroughs in the HBM field.

Samsung has expanded its HBM sales and stated that it plans to begin delivering HBM4 products—its latest sixth-generation HBM technology—this year. Ray Wang, an analyst focused on memory and AI supply chains at SemiAnalysis, stated, "We expect Samsung to make significant strides in providing HBM4 for NVIDIA's new products, overcoming last year's quality issues." Nevertheless, analysts still expect SK Hynix to maintain a high market share and dominant position in the HBM4 market. "The HBM4 competition is essentially a contest between SK Hynix and Samsung, as we believe these two companies are more competitive than Micron," Wang stated.

He added, "We expect SK Hynix to maintain its leading position in HBM4, while Samsung will make substantial progress, becoming more competitive in HBM4 compared to previous generations."

The outcome of this technological competition will directly impact the global AI chip supply chain landscape and determine the future market share distribution between the two major semiconductor giants in South Korea. For investors betting on AI infrastructure, closely monitoring the progress of both companies in HBM4 mass production and customer certification is crucial