"Sold Everything Fearing Bankruptcy, Then It Soared 3,900 Times: How a Stock Once Feared for Delisting Became an AI Powerhouse"

Hynix in Workout at the Time

Rose to 'AI Core Stock' After SK Acquisition

"If only I had bought 1 million won worth of Hynix stock back then..." A scene from a sitcom aired in the early 2000s has recently resurfaced on social networking services (SNS) and online communities. This renewed attention came after it was revealed that the Hynix stock price displayed on the ticker in the show was just 460 won at the time.

On the 17th, a photo capturing a scene from the SBS sitcom Live Right was posted across SNS threads and social media. The particular scene shows the frugal couple characters, Park Youngkyu and Lee Eungkyung, checking stock prices on their computer.

A scene from the sitcom Live Right aired in December 2002. Screenshot from SNS

What caught netizens' attention were the stock names and prices shown on the monitor. The screen displayed Hynix's current price at 460 won. Hyundai Motor was around 35,900 won, and LG Chem was approximately 45,450 won. This episode is known to have aired in December 2002. At that time, Hynix was in a very different situation compared to today's SK hynix. Hynix, which originally started as Hyundai Electronics, faced a workout process due to a combination of debt burden after acquiring LG Semicon and a downturn in the semiconductor market. This was before 'SK' became part of the company name.

The market sentiment of the era is also reflected in the sitcom scene. Hynix's trading volume is shown as exceeding 400 million shares. Despite concerns over a cash crunch and restructuring, trading volume skyrocketed as day traders flocked to the stock. However, more than 20 years later, the situation has completely changed. After being acquired by the SK Group in 2011, Hynix restarted as SK hynix. Since then, it has grown into a global memory semiconductor company focusing on DRAM and NAND flash, and recently, it has been recognized as a key company in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor supply chain, leveraging its competitiveness in high bandwidth memory (HBM).

The stock price has also soared. On May 15, SK hynix's intraday high reached 1,995,000 won, with a closing price of 1,819,000 won. Compared to the 460 won shown in the 2002 sitcom, that's around 3,954 times higher. This led to online comments such as, "If I had bought 1 million won worth of shares back then, I'd have 4 billion won now." However, this is an exaggerated calculation. If one had bought 1 million won worth of shares at 460 won, that would be about 2,173 shares; multiplying by the recent closing price of 1,819,000 won, it would amount to roughly 3.95 billion won. Furthermore, actual investment returns could differ from a simple stock price comparison, as capital changes since 2003 must be factored in.

Hynix restarted as SK hynix after being acquired by the SK Group in 2011. Since then, it has grown into a global memory semiconductor company focusing on DRAM and NAND flash, and recently, it has been recognized as a key company in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor supply chain, leveraging its competitiveness in high bandwidth memory (HBM). Photo by Kang Jinhyung

Nevertheless, online reactions remain heated. Comments include, "Back then, everyone thought the company would go bankrupt," "I wish I could tell my younger self to buy Hynix," "It was too scary to buy at 460 won, but now it looks attractive at 1.8 million won," "In the end, those who endure win in the stock market," and "History is only obvious in hindsight." Other netizens remarked, "Even if I had bought then, I probably wouldn't have held on all the way," "How many people would have held a stock for 20 years when there were fears of delisting?" "It seems easy just looking at the results, but it must have been pure fear at the time," and "This scene shows survivorship bias more than investment insight."

Meanwhile, on the 17th, Nomura Securities raised its target price for Samsung Electronics from 340,000 won to 590,000 won, and for SK hynix from 2,340,000 won to 4,000,000 won in a recent report. This is the first time the target price for SK hynix has been set in the 4 million won range. Nomura Securities analyzed that these two companies should be reevaluated as 'structural growth stocks' rather than traditional cyclical stocks. In the past, memory prices moved according to PC and smartphone demand, but now, with the spread of AI, memory demand itself has entered a phase of structural growth. The report stated, "The 12-month forward price-earnings ratio (PER) for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix remains around 6 times," and added, "They should be valued similarly to TSMC, which has a PER of about 20 times."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.