Samsung Electronics Rises Nearly 10% to New High, Overtaking Micron to Top Automotive Memory Market

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on June 1, Samsung Electronics surged over 9.6% intraday to 347,500 KRW, hitting a record high; the stock's year-to-date cumulative gain expanded to 189%, driving the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) up by over 4.5% to surpass 8,860 points, also reaching a new record high.

In addition, spurred by local media reports that LG Electronics may expand its cooperation with NVIDIA ( NVDA) in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics, LG Electronics' stock price hit the daily limit and reached a record high.

[Source: TradingView]

On the news front, Samsung announced on May 29 that it has shipped the industry's first samples of 12-layer HBM4E to global customers, with performance improved by more than 20% compared to the previous-generation HBM4. At the same time, Samsung surpassed Micron ( MU) for the first time to become the world's largest supplier in the automotive memory market.

The latest report from market research firm S&P Global Mobility shows that Samsung's share of the global automotive-grade memory chip market reached 40% in 2025, an increase of 5 percentage points from 2024; meanwhile, Micron's share declined from 40% to 36%, falling to second place.

Since entering the automotive semiconductor sector in 2015, Samsung's products have covered all categories, including LPDDR, UFS, SSD, and GDDR, with average annual sales growth in this business exceeding 40% from 2020 to 2025. Currently, Samsung has supplied top global customers such as Qualcomm ( QCOM ), Bosch, and Tesla ( TSLA) and other leading global clients.

On the earnings front, Samsung's operating profit for the first quarter of 2026 reached 57.2 trillion KRW, a year-on-year increase of more than sevenfold, exceeding the total for the entire year of 2025 and setting a record for single-quarter earnings by a Korean company. The significant profit growth was primarily driven by strong demand for HBM and DDR5 from AI servers, as well as the continuous rise in DRAM and NAND prices.

Goldman Sachs ( GS) raised its price target for Samsung Electronics to 480,000 KRW on June 1, implying approximately 60% upside potential. The firm cited that, against the backdrop of AI drivers, supply constraints, and the prevalence of long-term supply agreements, the memory industry is transforming from a highly cyclical commodity sector into profitable and predictable "AI infrastructure," with the valuation logic shifting from Price-to-Book (P/B) to Price-to-Earnings (P/E).

The core driver of Samsung's recent stock price surge is the growth in memory chip demand brought about by the explosion of the AI industry. Coupled with its rise to the top of the automotive memory market share, this further validates the success of its diversification strategy, causing market expectations for its future growth potential to continue rising.