Samsung and SK Hynix Post Record Profits on AI Memory, but Their Shares Keep Falling

In the week of July 28, 2026, Samsung and SK Hynix reported record results in the global memory industry, which is worth about $1 trillion. Even so, shares of both manufacturers kept correcting, erasing a large part of their year-to-date gains.

Records Against a Backdrop of Skeptics

Both manufacturers answered AI-boom doubters directly, with record numbers and new strategic deals. According to Bloomberg, the quarterly results were the highest in the history of an industry worth nearly $1 trillion. The main engine is explosive demand for HBM (High Bandwidth Memory, high-speed stacked memory), without which the AI accelerators from NVIDIA, AMD and Google do not work.

• The global memory chip industry (DRAM + NAND) is valued at nearly $1 trillion
• Samsung and SK Hynix together control more than 70% of the global DRAM market
• SK Hynix is the leading supplier of HBM3E to NVIDIA, and this segment drove most of its revenue growth in 2026
• Both companies posted new records in quarterly operating profit
• Alongside the earnings reports, both announced major long-term deals in the AI segment

"In a remarkable week, the titans of the nearly $1 trillion global memory industry crushed profit records,"

Bloomberg wrote.

Why Shares Fall Despite Record Profits

The market paradox: record operating profit did not stop the selloff. According to Bloomberg, shares of Samsung and SK Hynix have given up a large part of their gains since the start of 2026, despite the best results in the industry's history.

The mechanics of the disconnect are typical of the semiconductor cycle: the market prices in future demand, not the current quarter. Investors fear that hyperscalers — Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta* — may cut AI infrastructure spending in the second half of 2026 or in 2027. Lower data center capex means fewer GPU purchases, and then fewer purchases of HBM and server DRAM. Memory makers' shares react to shifting expectations one to two quarters ahead of the actual cycle.

Competitive pressure adds to the strain. Samsung, which ceded priority in HBM3E supply to NVIDIA to SK Hynix, is accelerating production of next-generation HBM4. That requires heavy capital investment and is already weighing on its free cash flow.

What the New Deals Mean

Bloomberg describes the strategic agreements announced alongside the results as a direct answer to AI skeptics. Long-term HBM supply contracts are typically signed for 12 to 36 months. Their existence means the largest buyers of AI infrastructure plan to keep purchasing at the current pace at least through 2027–2028.

"Big numbers and big deals" as an answer to AI doubters — that is how

Bloomberg sums up the week for Samsung and SK Hynix.

For the memory market, the new agreements matter more than the quarterly records. They reduce uncertainty about future volumes and let both manufacturers plan production capacity utilization several years ahead.

What This Means

The Samsung and SK Hynix records confirm that the AI infrastructure cycle has not stopped, and that memory makers have become its key beneficiaries. The gap between operating results and share performance reflects not an industry crisis but the typical cyclicality of the semiconductor market: prices already discount the risks of 2027 while the companies report records for 2026. The new long-term deals are a weighty counterargument to the bears.

*Meta is designated an extremist organization and banned in Russia.