Seoul: SK Hynix has overtaken Samsung Electronics to become South Korea's most valuable publicly traded company. This milestone represents a significant shift for the chipmaker, which nearly faced bankruptcy due to debt issues two decades ago.

According to Thai News Agency, stock market movements saw SK Hynix's shares rise by 5.7 percent, elevating its market capitalization to 2,082.5 trillion won, approximately 47.7 trillion baht. In contrast, Samsung Electronics experienced a modest increase of 0.4 percent in its shares, resulting in a market capitalization of 2,081.3 trillion won, or roughly 47.6 trillion baht. These calculations exclude preferred shares.

SK Hynix has emerged as a prominent supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips, or HBMs, which are utilized in artificial intelligence systems by global giants such as Nvidia and Google's Alphabet. This strategic position has enabled the company to capitalize on the expanding global AI trend. The positive growth trajectory has resulted in a stock price surge of over 340 percent this year, allowing its market capitalization to surpass both Samsung Electronics and Micron.

While SK Hynix concentrates on memory chips, CPUs, and GPUs, Samsung Electronics has maintained a more diversified business model, producing logic chips and consumer electronics like smartphones and televisions. This marks the first instance in over two decades where Samsung Electronics has been unseated from its position as the nation's most valuable company, a title it held since 2000.