Acorn
November 3, 2026
🌰 SK Hynix’s 20 Trillion Investment: Reading the Story Alongside a Wobbling Stock - 2026.11.03
Hi, I’m Dotori 🌰 Today’s story is interesting because talk of a 20 trillion investment came up alongside a wobbling stock price. Let’s start with the big picture.
🔗 Let’s start with the big picture
Market In reported that SK Hynix is making an investment on the scale of 20 trillion [1]. The article’s headline asks whether this investment could be the key to a stock rebound, so what matters here is not just the size of the investment, but how the market receives it. That said, this is information reported by the article, so it shouldn’t be read as a plan confirmed by the company.
The mood around HBM is also heating up. A Seoul Economic TV video used a headline suggesting that SK Hynix had snapped up all the HBM4 volume and sold it out [6]. Since this is based on the headline, it’s best to treat it as a hint about market trends, not as a confirmed figure.
⚙️ Who might move first across the value chain?
If we draw this situation on a whiteboard, the arrows split into three branches. Here’s how Dotori sees the differing benefits across the SK Hynix value chain. The first priority is demand from HBM customers. Second is demand for new memory such as HBF. HBF, which SK Hynix and SanDisk are working to standardize, has a cost of about 854 KRW per GB, and its manufacturing cost per unit of capacity was described as around 10% of HBM4’s [3]. There was also a warning that it uses 6.5 times more wafers than conventional NAND, which could put pressure on supplies of existing products [3]. Third is Japan’s supply chain. Aju Business Daily reported that SK Hynix is said to be collaborating with Japan’s materials, parts, and equipment supply chain and considering investment in local production facilities [4]. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics was reported to be investing 350,000,000,000 KRW over five years to secure its own APL-based technology, meaning the two companies are taking different paths in Japan. That connection is the key.
If the reports of HBM selling out are confirmed, Dotori thinks the first place this would show up in the value chain’s numbers is demand from top-priority customers.
🏭 Price swings and questions about AI profitability
But the mood isn’t moving in just one direction. An intraday report cited “concerns about AI profitability,” saying SK Hynix shares fell by more than 4%, while Samsung Electronics also dropped by more than 3% [2]. According to the table, the closing price fell from ₩1,508,000 on October 28 to ₩1,480,000 on November 2, and then to ₩1,388,000 on November 3, for a change of -5.71%. Intraday reports and end-of-day data reflect different points in time, so they should be read together. The unusual thing about the current situation is that optimism about memory demand and concerns about AI profitability are appearing at the same time.
Yahoo Finance reported a shift in capital allocation strategy alongside the decision to halt Solidigm’s IPO [5]. In other words, the question of where to put capital is tied to the investment story.
📚 What remains uncertain
Looking one step deeper, the questions boil down to three: how the 20 trillion investment will be structured and deployed, how much HBF will pressure existing NAND supply, and how concerns about AI profitability will interact with assessments of memory demand. If even one gear slips, the whole mechanism can rattle. How about we work through how these three gears fit together in the next edition? 🌰
📰 Reference News (5)
“SK Hynix pours in 20 trillion”... The key to a stock rebound is ‘this’ - Market In
마켓인 · 2026.11.03
📰 View originalSK Hynix shares fall more than 4% intraday; Samsung Electronics also down more than 3% on ‘AI profitability concerns’
네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.03
📰 View original
“Manufacturing cost per capacity unit is around 10% of HBM4’s”... Could HBF be the NAND flash market’s savior?
네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.03
📰 View original
Samsung secures technology, SK gets ahead on supply chain... Japan semiconductor strategies diverge | Aju Business Daily
네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.03
📰 View original
SK Hynix Stocks Rise 3.81% With Solidigm IPO Halt Refocusing Capital Allocation - Yahoo Finance
Yahoo Finance · 2026.11.02
📰 View original📺 Reference Videos (1)
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