Samsung joins $1 trillion club on AI chip boom; becomes 11th most valuable company globally by m-cap

Samsung Electronics has created a historic milestone on Wednesday, becoming only the second Asian firm after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to surpass a $1 trillion market valuation. The landmark achievement follows a sharp rally in its shares, which surged as much as 13.5% in a single trading session today, driven by booming demand for memory chips powering artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

The rally pushed Samsung’s market capitalisation to around 1,500 trillion won (approximately $1.03 trillion) during early trading in Seoul. The momentum in Samsung shares also lifted South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI Composite Index above the 7,000 mark for the first time ever.

In the calendar year 2026, Samsung shares have rallied 105%, while it added 37% in the past one month. The bluechip technology stock has zoomed 384% in the last one year, while it jumped 166% in six months.

The surge reflects growing investor optimism around the company’s dominant position in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced DRAM chips, which are increasingly critical for AI workloads, data centres, and next-generation computing infrastructure.

Become 11th most valuable company globally by m-cap

With this milestone, Samsung has emerged as the world’s 11th most valuable company by market capitalisation, overtaking retail giant Walmart and investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. Global tech leaders such as NVIDIA, Alphabet Inc., and Apple Inc. continue to dominate the top rankings.

The recent rally in Samsung shares have been driven by strong financial performance. For the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, the South Korean major posted a eight-fold year-on-year jump in its operating profit, driven by strong demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The world’s largest memory chip maker saw its operating profit soaring to a record 57.2 trillion won. Revenue also climbed to an all-time high of 133.9 trillion won, surpassing market expectations.

The robust performance was largely powered by Samsung’s semiconductor division, which benefited from a sharp rise in demand for chips used in AI servers and data centres. The device solutions (DS) division reported an 86% quarter-on-quarter jump in sales, with the memory segment delivering record quarterly revenue and operating profit. This was supported by Samsung’s technological edge in the memory market, along with an improvement in average selling prices (ASP).

Meanwhile, the Device eXperience (DX) segment posted a 19% sequential increase in sales, aided by the launch of new flagship smartphones. Despite rising cost pressures, the division focused on expanding sales of higher-value products across categories to sustain profitability, the company said in its earnings report.

Looking ahead, Samsung expects demand momentum to continue. For Q2 2026, its memory business anticipates sustained strength driven by ongoing AI infrastructure expansion and plans to deliver initial samples of its next-generation HBM4E chips, reinforcing its technological leadership. The company also aims to capitalise on early demand for upcoming GPUs and CPUs slated for launch in the second half of 2026, while maintaining an AI-focused sales strategy across both DRAM and NAND products.

For the second half of 2026, Samsung expects server memory demand to remain robust as hyperscalers ramp up capacity to support growing enterprise adoption of AI and large language model (LLM) services. The company added that the rise of agentic AI is likely to further accelerate demand growth.