How large is SK Hynix's share buyback?

SK Hynix will repurchase and cancel about 24.07 million shares — roughly 3.3% of shares outstanding — worth 40 trillion won ($28.6 billion), the largest treasury-share cancellation by a listed South Korean company.

Why did SK Hynix's stock fall before the buyback?

The shares had more than doubled earlier in 2026 on surging AI memory demand, drawing repeated “overheating” cautions from the Korea Exchange, before losing over half their value in the following two months as investors grew wary of stretched AI-related valuations.

Does the buyback change SK Hynix's AI chip production plans?

No — it’s a financial move to support the share price, funded by the company’s roughly 69 trillion won net cash position built up from AI memory sales. Earlier in August, SK Hynix separately said it would spend 54 trillion won building a new memory plant.

How did investors react to the announcement?

SK Hynix shares jumped more than 12% in Seoul trading the day after the buyback was announced.

SK Hynix Approves Record $28.6B Buyback After AI Stock Slide

South Korea’s SK Hynix said on August 19 it will accelerate a 40 trillion won ($28.6 billion) buyback-and-cancellation program, the largest stock repurchase in Korean corporate history, as it tries to convince investors that a punishing two-month sell-off has overshot the company’s actual value.

A wild ride for AI’s memory supplier

SK Hynix, the world’s leading maker of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that feed Nvidia and other AI accelerators, has had one of the most volatile years on Korea’s stock market. Shares more than doubled in the first half of 2026 as AI memory demand surged, drawing two “overheating” cautions from the Korea Exchange within a single month and pushing the premium on its US-listed ADRs to as much as 51% over its Seoul-listed stock. That rally then reversed sharply, with the stock losing more than half its value over the following two months amid broader jitters about the sustainability of debt-fueled AI spending.

In its own announcement, SK Hynix said its “intrinsic value—underpinned by business competitiveness, robust cash generation capability, and mid-to-long-term growth potential” is not reflected in the current share price. The company holds roughly 69 trillion won in net cash. Alongside the buyback, it raised its shareholder-return target to more than 50% of cumulative free cash flow for 2025–2027, combining repurchases with dividends. Shares jumped more than 12% in Seoul the day after the announcement.

Part of a broader capital scramble

The move lands amid a wider scramble among chipmakers to reassure investors as AI infrastructure spending balloons. Intel raised $20 billion through a stock sale to fund its own chip expansion this year, while Nvidia and Wall Street banks have floated $500 billion in AI financing platforms to keep data-center buildouts funded. SK Hynix itself raised more than $26 billion through a follow-on stock offering just last month — selling new shares to fund expansion, then weeks later moving to retire old ones to support the price.

Analysts broadly welcomed the buyback as a sign of confidence, though some noted it doesn’t resolve the question still dogging the sector: whether current AI capital expenditure is sustainable once today’s wave of memory and data-center demand cools.

A wild ride for AI’s memory supplier

Part of a broader capital scramble

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