The South Korean chipmaker has been a late entrant to the artificial intelligence surge, now entering its fourth year, raising questions about its sustainability. In 2026, its shares are outperforming SK Hynix, yet this comes after three years of notable underachievement, as the smaller competitor secured a crucial client, Nvidia.
The notion that “Samsung is back” is being driven by expected advancements in AI alongside significant increases in memory chip prices. Recently, the largest company in Korea has shown stronger earnings growth expectations compared to its peers.
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Samsung is reportedly close to finalizing a deal to supply Nvidia with its latest high-bandwidth memory chips, a long-awaited development that could enhance its value.
On the other hand, the production capacity for more traditional memory products—a market dominated by Samsung—has been adversely affected by the relentless demand for HBM. As a result, the price of legacy DRAM, utilized in PCs, smartphones, and more traditional servers, has surged.
Contrary to the gains seen by SK Hynix and other AI favorites, Samsung’s stock more than doubled last year and has been reaching new heights. However, a drop due to any earnings disappointment or bubble speculation is a possibility as investors become more discerning.
Yet, since late September, Samsung’s earnings forecasts for the upcoming year have surged by 115%, outpacing the increases of 16% for TSMC and 88% for SK Hynix. Consequently, Samsung’s forward price-to-earnings ratio fell from nearly 25 times in 2023 to 10 times.
(Edited by : Juviraj Anchil)
