SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will sell a 2.26% stake in SK Corp for approximately $700 million to settle a divorce ruling requiring him to pay 944 billion won to former spouse Roh Soh-yeong. The sale, beginning in November, follows a South Korean court's landmark divorce decision, though Chey will retain his position as the company's largest shareholder.
An investment analysis argues that HBM (high-bandwidth memory) is an engineering mistake due to escalating costs and thermal challenges, citing the failed Rubin HBM4 rollout where vendors couldn't meet Nvidia's speed demands. The author maintains a contrarian view on DRAM stocks while predicting HBM will see a 90% volume decline within 7-10 years as alternative solutions like CXL become viable.
South Korean stocks surged nearly 2% to close at a four-week high, driven by record export data showing a 83.5% year-over-year jump led by semiconductor shipments tripling on AI demand. Chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led gains as factory activity grew at its strongest pace in four months, signaling robust global demand for memory chips.
Memory manufacturers including Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix have signed long-term agreements that divert capacity to data centers, causing consumer RAM and SSD prices to surge dramatically over the past year—DDR5 kits up 363%, SSDs up to 254%—pricing out PC enthusiasts and pushing consumers toward cloud services.
Micron's Q4 earnings show strong AI-driven memory demand with revenue up 379% YoY to $54.23B and gross margins expanding to 87%. Major memory suppliers SK Hynix and Samsung also posted record results as HBM, server DRAM, and enterprise SSDs drive a structural capacity shift, with analysts projecting data center memory demand will surge from $107B in 2025 to $1.4 trillion by 2030.
Memory chip margins hit record highs in September 2026, with DRAM at 91% and NAND at 87%, driven by AI server demand and HBM requirements. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron dominate profits through 2027-28, though Chinese competitors CXMT and YMTC pose a long-term pricing threat as they expand capacity and market share.