New trillion-level players in the chip industry: three more emerged in just one month, with a three-fold surge. UBS raised its target price for Micron to 11,000 yuan.
This May is destined to be inscribed in the annals of the memory chip industry.
On May 6th, Samsung Electronics' market value first exceeded $1 trillion. On May 26th, Micron Technology soared 19.29%, and its market value reached $1 trillion. Less than 10 hours later, SK Hynix crossed the finish line.
Within just one month, the world's three major memory chip giants have all joined the trillion - dollar club.
The Three Giants' Dominance
The global memory chip market presents a distinct oligopoly pattern. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology stand as the three pillars, firmly controlling the industry's lifeline.
According to data released by CFM Flash Memory Market, in the first quarter of this year, the global DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) market size was $94.325 billion, a quarter - on - quarter increase of 81.5%. Among them, Samsung Electronics had a market share of 40.5%, SK Hynix 29.6%, and Micron Technology 19.9%. The three together accounted for about 90% of the global DRAM market.
Samsung Electronics is known as the "Memory Empire". It has a full - industry - chain layout in the DRAM and NAND (Flash Memory) fields and firmly holds the top position. In the first quarter of 2026, Samsung Electronics' chip business revenue was 74.8 trillion won (approximately RMB 338 billion), a year - on - year increase of 292%; the operating profit was 53.7 trillion won (approximately RMB 242.7 billion), a year - on - year increase of 4782%.
SK Hynix took a different approach and focused on the HBM (High - Bandwidth Memory) niche market. It was the first to develop HBM3 and HBM3E products and supply them to companies like NVIDIA and Microsoft, thus establishing its leading position in the HBM market. In the first quarter, the company's revenue exceeded 50 trillion won (approximately RMB 226 billion) for the first time, a year - on - year increase of 198%; the operating profit was 37.6 trillion won (approximately RMB 170 billion), and the operating profit margin reached 72%, setting a record since its establishment.
Micron Technology is headquartered in Idaho, USA. It has a diversified product portfolio and can provide memory solutions in mainstream markets such as PCs, mobile devices, data centers, and automobiles. It took the company only 48 trading days for its market value to rise from over $500 billion to $1 trillion. In the first quarter of this year, Micron Technology's total revenue reached $13.64 billion (approximately RMB 92.5 billion), a year - on - year increase of 57%.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 27th that memory chips have become one of the most profitable products globally. As the demand for chips shows no sign of cooling in the short term, investors are flocking to the technology sector. "As the global AI infrastructure construction continues to advance, the supply of high - performance computing chips is becoming increasingly tight, and the prices of memory products are rising. Chip manufacturers are expected to benefit from this."
With the combination of strong demand, tight supply, and rising prices, the logic behind the explosion of memory chip companies is not complicated. According to Reuters statistics, in the first quarter of this year alone, the price of memory chips doubled compared to the previous quarter, and it is expected to rise by 63% in the second quarter.
Bloomberg pointed out on May 27th that memory chips have become the key bottleneck determining the expansion speed of data centers. Investors and analysts expect the shortage of memory chips to last until 2027, which gives SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Micron Technology an unusual pricing advantage among the world's largest technology companies.
Optimistic Forecasts
Financial institutions can no longer hold back.
Reuters reported on May 26th local time that UBS significantly raised its target price for Micron Technology from $535 per share to $1625 per share (approximately RMB 11,000 per share), more than tripling it, while maintaining a "Buy" rating. The reason is the strong demand for artificial intelligence and the conclusion of long - term supply agreements (LTA).
Reuters pointed out that the revised target price is the highest among the 46 brokerage firms tracking the stock, which means that Micron Technology's potential valuation in the next 12 months will be close to $1.8 trillion.
UBS said that with the signing of long - term supply agreements in the industry, the profit volatility will be reduced, and the profit visibility will be improved. There is "no reason" for Micron Technology to have a significant difference in price - to - earnings ratio compared with NVIDIA.
Therefore, UBS expects Micron Technology to have a higher valuation multiple, approaching that of other semiconductor peers. Currently, Micron Technology's price - to - earnings ratio is 8.42 times, while the price - to - earnings ratio of the S&P 500 index is 21.1 times, and that of the Nasdaq 100 index is 24.66 times.
While paying attention to Micron Technology, UBS also raised its expectations for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. These two companies together account for 40% of the South Korean stock market.
On May 20th, UBS raised its target price for Samsung Electronics from 275,000 won per share to 400,000 won per share (approximately RMB 1812 per share) and raised its target price for SK Hynix from 1.8 million won per share to 2.25 million won per share (approximately RMB 10,200 per share).
UBS analyzed that SK Hynix has reached improved long - term supply agreements with some hyperscale customers. Usually, the trading volume and pricing are fixed for three years, followed by two more flexible years. It is expected that these long - term contracts will improve SK Hynix's free cash flow visibility.
However, in view of the significant increase in SK Hynix's stock price, UBS shifted its preference to Samsung Electronics. While maintaining a "Buy" rating for SK Hynix, the institution removed it from the key recommendation list for the Asia - Pacific region and included Samsung Electronics in the new list.
On May 27th, according to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's Mirae Asset Securities announced that it would raise the target prices of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to 550,000 won per share (approximately RMB 2491 per share) and 3.8 million won per share (approximately RMB 17,200 per share) respectively.
In the report released on the same day, analyst Kim Young - geun said: "We raised the target price of Samsung Electronics by 14.6%, from 480,000 won per share to 550,000 won per share."
He pointed out: "We maintain our previous profit forecast. In view of the general upward trend of valuation in the global memory semiconductor industry, we raised the valuation multiple used to calculate the 12 - month forward EV/EBITDA (Enterprise Value/Cash Flow) ratio from 6 times to 7 times."
Kim Young - geun explained that this value represents the average level of the current trading valuation multiples of the world's two major memory chip manufacturers, Micron Technology and Kioxia.
For SK Hynix, Kim Young - geun raised its target price by 18.8%, from 3.2 million won per share to 3.8 million won per share, and raised the price - to - book (P/B) valuation multiple from 5.3 times to 6.2 times. He said that it is expected that driven by high memory prices and an increasing proportion of long - term supply agreements, SK Hynix's average return on equity from 2026 to 2028 will rise to 66%, while the average level in the past decade was only 19%.
Kim Young - geun also emphasized that as the second half of the year approaches, it is very likely that new market expectations reflecting next year's valuation level will begin to form.
As of now, the stock prices of Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology have increased by 156%, 245%, and 214% respectively this year. Trillion - dollar market value is not the end. In the second half of the memory chip market, it is still unknown which "new AI king" can defeat its competitors and tell the story of "supply falling short of demand" for a longer time.
This article is from the WeChat official account "China News Service - New Economy" (ID: jwview). Author: Dong Wenbo, Editor: Lin Wansi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.