Adding a footnote to the "super cycle": Samsung and SK Hynix surpass Tencent and Alibaba

A storage boom not only made Samsung and SK Hynix immensely profitable but also caused a subtle tilt in the balance of the capital markets.

On February 3rd, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix’s combined market value reached $1.14 trillion, slightly surpassing Alibaba and Tencent’s combined market value of $1.07 trillion in Hong Kong stocks.

Samsung and SK Hynix are currently the two most valuable companies in South Korea. The former surged 11% today, while the latter increased by over 9%; since the beginning of the year, their cumulative gains are close to 40%.

On the other hand, Alibaba and Tencent, which are temporarily behind in total market value, are widely believed to have fallen today mainly due to rumors that internet value-added services will be “taxed.” However, at the root, this may be a misinterpretation of the relevant tax policy adjustments. Alibaba and Tencent both closed the day with declines of 1.41% and 2.92%, respectively; since the beginning of the year, Alibaba has gained 12.75%, while Tencent has slightly declined by 3%.

Behind this, the more important driving force is naturally the worldwide storage shortage wave. Today, storage chips led by HBM have become an indispensable part of AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, the demand from large cloud providers willing to pay premiums has further boosted the performance of storage giants. Against the backdrop of record shortages in both DRAM and NAND, Samsung and SK Hynix have gained unprecedented pricing power.

Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific Chief Equity Strategist Timothy Moe predicts that about 60% of Korea’s profit growth this year will come from the semiconductor industry.

The different stock price trends behind this also reflect the different development paths chosen in the AI field.

Indrani De, Head of Global Investment Research at FTSE Russell, pointed out that China’s advantage lies in its massive manufacturing ecosystem, which allows for rapid scaling; Korea, on the other hand, focuses on hardware, building structural advantages.

Yiping Liao, Portfolio Manager at Franklin Templeton Global Investment, also expressed a similar view: “Korea is highly focused on a specific link in the tech supply chain, while China is more like trying to build an end-to-end, comprehensive AI technology system.”

In other words, among the two routes, one emphasizes deep technological control over key links, and the other leans toward system integration and market application breadth.

More notably, in the global discussion surrounding the AI boom, the more frequent comparison objects for internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent are the Silicon Valley giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta. The comparison dimensions are also more focused on capital expenditure and AI monetization.

In recent days, several domestic internet giants have gradually laid out their development plans for 2026, with AI as a core focus. For example, Tencent founder Ma Huateng stated that future large models and AI products will be considered in an integrated manner to continuously enhance long-term product competitiveness and user experience; Alibaba proposed the new concept of “Tongyun Ge,” which is a three-in-one development of “Cloud + AI + Chips,” fully leveraging its full-stack advantages; ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo clearly stated that by 2026, the company aims to “reach new heights” in AI, with short-term goals focusing on the application deployment of Doubao/Dola Assistant.

Meanwhile, as the Spring Festival approaches, the AI traffic war has also heated up: previously, ByteDance’s Volcano Engine officially announced it became the exclusive AI cloud partner of CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala, and Doubao will launch multiple AI interactive features simultaneously; Yuanbao, Wenxin, and Qianwen also announced they will distribute cash red envelopes during the Spring Festival to fully seize holiday traffic entrances.

In the long term, compared to South Korean chip manufacturers exposed to the cyclical supply and demand of storage chips, Chinese internet giants’ advantages at the application layer may provide more long-term and stable growth support.

(Source: Kechuang Board Daily)