As the AI mania drives a historic rally, Samsung surpasses the $1 trillion valuation, boosting shares by more than 15%.

As investors continued to pile into stocks linked to artificial intelligence, Samsung Electronics' market capitalization soared by more than 15% on Wednesday, surpassing $1 trillion. After TSMC, Samsung became the second Asian company to reach $1 trillion. According to FactSet data, the company reached that $1 trillion market capitalization threshold for the first time on February 26. According to FactSet data, the company's stock has surpassed a record high and is on track for the largest single-day gain ever.

The rally came after Samsung Electronics reported record earnings for the first quarter last week. Revenue increased to a record 133.9 trillion Korean won, while operating profit increased more than eightfold to 57.2 trillion won. In addition, Samsung's operating profit for the first quarter exceeded its profit for the entire year 2025, which was 43.6 trillion won. The gains also came as a result of a Bloomberg report that said Apple had held exploratory talks with Samsung and Intel about making chips for Apple devices in the United States, possibly expanding beyond its long-time supplier TSMC.

The benchmark index Kospi increased by more than 5% to surpass 7,000 for the first time thanks to shares of the South Korean chip giant SK Hynix rising by more than 10%.

Samsung's profitability has increased as a result of sales of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips; however, the company continues to face intense competition after losing its early lead in the HBM market to rival SK Hynix. Samsung has been working to catch up to SK Hynix in the AI memory market, which is expanding quickly. The company said in February that it was the first company in the world to start mass producing HBM4 chips and start shipping them to unnamed customers. HBM4 is the sixth and most recent generation of high-bandwidth memory technology. Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin AI architecture, which aims to power advanced AI workloads in data centers, is expected to rely heavily on the chips.

According to analysts, the booming demand for AI-related memory, tightening supply conditions, and improved competitiveness in high-bandwidth memory chips are the primary factors behind Samsung Electronics' sharp rise. According to Morningstar technology equity analyst Yu Jing Jie, "there is a tremendous shortage in DRAM and NAND memory chips due to torrid AI demand, which is very memory hungry due to AI's high bandwidth and storage needs." While NAND chips are slower, non-volatile storage chips that retain data even when devices are powered off, DRAM chips are fast, volatile memory chips that temporarily store data while processors actively use them. Yu also mentioned that new semiconductor capacity typically takes two to three years to come online, indicating that supply is likely to remain constrained in the near future. Memory manufacturers are scrambling to increase production. As a result, higher margins and earnings growth are anticipated in the coming one to two years. Rolf Bulk, head of semiconductor and infrastructure at The Futurum Group, stated that current high memory prices and strong earnings for Samsung and its peers are likely to remain supported for some time.

This is the case despite the fact that new factories are anticipated to ramp up across the industry in the coming years. Bulk went on to say that customers have been pleased with Samsung's most recent HBM4 products, which has helped close the technology gap with SK Hynix. While SK Hynix still leads the HBM market with an estimated 55% share compared with Samsung’s roughly 25%, Bulk said investors are less concerned about the gap because conventional DRAM profitability has recently overtaken HBM margins.

Dylan Butts of CNBC contributed to this report.