South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics has reached a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. Driven by the increasing global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer saw its share price rise by approximately 400% over the past year. Following a 15% jump in share price during Wednesday's trading, Samsung became the second Asian company to hit the $1 trillion mark, following Taiwan's TSMC.
This growth has significantly impacted South Korea's benchmark stock index, the KOSPI, which climbed above the historic 7,400-point level. Alongside SK Hynix and TSMC, Samsung is helping establish Asia as a central hub for the global AI ecosystem. Investor attraction to semiconductor companies remains high due to massive investments in data infrastructure. In the last month alone, SK Hynix shares rose by 81%, while TSMC saw a 21.77% increase.
According to its March quarterly report, Samsung's semiconductor division recorded a 48-fold increase in annual profit. This growth was fueled by high demand from AI-based data centers and improved business margins. Furthermore, reports indicate that Apple Inc. is in preliminary discussions with Samsung to manufacture processors in the United States. Such a deal could reduce Apple's long-standing reliance on TSMC and mark a major strategic victory for Samsung. Currently, Samsung leads the world in producing memory chips for data storage and is a key player in the production of specialized AI chips designed for complex high-speed calculations.
