AFP
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Chips price index rose 42% in May compared to the same month a year earlier.
The memory chip industry, known for its cyclical fluctuations, is recovering quickly from its crisis, led by companies such as Samsung Electronics “SK Hynix” and “SK Hynix” Korea, where the country’s export price index for semiconductors jumped 42.1 percent in May from the same month a year earlier in U.S. dollar terms, according to data from the Bank of Korea released Friday.
The cost increase in May is the fastest on record, according to data going back to the 1970s, and follows a 41.4% rise in April.
Bottleneck
The high-bandwidth memory industry has become a bottleneck for AI chip production, with SK Hynix’s production largely sold out by the end of 2025 and Samsung struggling to get its products approved by Nvidia.
Memory chips are a mainstay of South Korea’s tech sector, along with smartphones and displays. Samsung and SK Hynix are also the country’s most valuable companies. As global demand for chips used in developing artificial intelligence. Memory chip exports have been surging since late last year, adding momentum that helped the Korean economy grow more than expected in the first quarter of the year.
Chip exports surged 36.6% in the first 10 days of May, according to the Korea Customs Service, suggesting the double-digit growth rate is likely to continue through the entire month. Sales could get an additional boost if Samsung can secure orders from Nvidia Corp. and rival chipmakers such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
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