Samsung Electronics is now worth over $1 trillion, becoming only the second Asian company after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to reach the milestone. Shares in the South Korean chipmaker surged as much as 15% in Seoul trading, their largest single-day gain on record, pushing the company’s market value to 1,500 trillion won ($1.03 trillion). By 6 May 2026, other estimates placed the market capitalisation at approximately $1.16 trillion, ranking Samsung as the 11th or 12th most valuable company globally. The valuation has grown from $6.56 billion in March 1998 to over $1.16 trillion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 20.16%.
Market Value Surge
The rally came after Samsung reported exceptionally strong first-quarter results last week. Operating profit rose more than eightfold from a year earlier to 57.2 trillion won (around $39.35 billion), while revenue reached a record 133.9 trillion won (roughly $92 billion). The quarterly profit alone exceeded Samsung’s total profit for all of 2025. The company’s semiconductor division posted a significant profit surge, driven by demand from AI data centres, and the Memory Business returned to profitability on the back of high-value products.
Samsung’s gains helped lift South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index above 7,000 points for the first time. As of 6 May 2026 the index had reached 7,385 points. Shares in fellow chipmaker SK Hynix also climbed more than 10% during the session.
AI Memory and HBM4 Chips
The primary driver behind Samsung’s valuation surge is booming demand for AI-related products, particularly memory semiconductors. Samsung is the world’s largest memory chip maker, and its chips are critical components for the AI infrastructure used by major technology firms including Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI. Demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) has been especially strong, with HBM becoming essential for AI accelerators and data-centre GPUs.
Samsung has been trying to catch up with SK Hynix in the fast-growing HBM market. SK Hynix currently holds a significant lead, while Samsung holds a substantial but smaller share. In February, Samsung became the first company to begin mass-producing HBM4 chips and ship them to customers. These chips are expected to play an important role in Nvidia’s next AI systems, which are being designed for heavy AI workloads in data centres.
HBM4 is set to redefine bandwidth ceilings, enabling next-generation trillion-parameter models. Samsung is leveraging advanced process technologies, including TSMC’s nodes, for greater stack densities and energy efficiency in AI, high-performance computing and graphics applications. The company’s foundry business is also seeing increased demand for its 4-nanometer process, driven by HBM4 base dies, and it has secured a silicon photonics project tied to AI data centres. The HBM market is experiencing exponential growth: it is projected to expand from $38 billion in 2025 to $58 billion in 2026, and HBM is expected to become the default memory for AI accelerators by 2027.
Nvidia continues to dominate the AI accelerator market, holding approximately 80% share, largely due to its CUDA software ecosystem. Nvidia has projected a revenue opportunity of at least $1 trillion through 2027 for its AI chips. The broader AI chip market is forecast to exceed $300 billion by 2030. At the same time, US-led restrictions on semiconductor exports to China are influencing market dynamics, with South Korea playing a key role as a US ally. Recent reports suggest a reduction in geopolitical risks, supporting earnings recovery in the semiconductor industry.
Investor Interest and Apple Talks
Analysts attribute Samsung’s recent growth to high demand for AI memory, limited supply, and improved confidence in its new chip technology. Investor interest increased sharply after Apple reportedly held exploratory talks with Samsung and Intel about manufacturing chips for its devices in the United States. Such a move could lessen Apple’s reliance on TSMC, which holds a commanding majority share of the foundry market and is a key supplier for Nvidia, Apple, Broadcom and Qualcomm. Apple is understood to be concerned about non-TSMC technology and whether Intel and Samsung can match TSMC’s production scale and advanced capabilities. Apple is already working with TSMC on a plant in Arizona. Samsung’s foundry business has shown promise, with reports of peak advanced-process utilisation and discussions for collaborations based on its 2-nanometer process.
