Jensen Huang’s sudden exit from Nvidia has cast uncertainty over future demand for South Korea’s two memory chip giants, SK hynix and Samsung Electronics, though analysts say long-term supply contracts and wider AI demand should cushion the blow, Korea JoongAng Daily reported on Thursday.
Huang, who co-founded Nvidia, stepped down as president, chief executive and board member on Thursday, and the board named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO. According to the newspaper, the board had opened an independent investigation on Sunday into reports that Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, saying it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. Beijing has dismissed the spying allegations, the report said.
Exposure to Nvidia
SK hynix is seen as the more exposed of the two. Its first-half business report showed a single customer accounted for 13.35% of revenue, or about 17.6 trillion won ($13.2 billion). Korean media, including Seoul Economic Daily, have identified that customer as Nvidia, although SK hynix has not confirmed it.
Nvidia is not among Samsung’s five largest customers, which together make up roughly a quarter of its sales, the report said. Daishin Securities estimates that SK hynix will supply 55% of Nvidia’s HBM4 high-bandwidth memory in 2026, with Samsung at 28% and Micron at 17%.
Kim Young-gun, a semiconductor analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, wrote that SK hynix has relatively greater HBM exposure to Nvidia than Samsung, but added that “a supply chain reshuffle does not directly mean lower AI demand.” He said Nvidia’s competitiveness is largely unaffected, and that AMD would be the main indirect beneficiary of any shift, followed by Broadcom and Marvell.
Seoul’s market felt the jitters. The Kospi fell 0.61% to 5,342.73 on Thursday, ending a two-day rally, Yonhap reported via Korea JoongAng Daily. SK hynix dropped 1.8% to 1.25 million won, while Samsung Electronics rose 0.97% to 208,000 won. Naver, in which Nvidia is the third-largest shareholder, slid 6.43%. Lee Kyoung-min of Daishin Securities said the index was hit by uncertainty tied to Huang, alongside profit-taking after the recent gains.
Long-term deals offer a buffer
Both chipmakers have locked in demand through long-term agreements. SK hynix said on its third-quarter earnings call that its DRAM and HBM capacity through 2029 is effectively sold out, with agreements signed with 14 major customers, four more than the previous quarter, some running up to five years.
Samsung has said its entire 2027 HBM capacity is booked, with agreements with 10 major customers and talks under way with another 10. The company said in July that prepayments had become a substantial part of contract terms.
An industry source quoted by the newspaper said Korean memory makers had already secured supply deals with other customers and that underlying demand for their chips remains strong.
Nvidia’s ties to Korea extend beyond memory. In October 2025, the company pledged about 260,000 GPUs to the country by 2030, including 50,000 each for Samsung Electronics, SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group, 60,000 for Naver Cloud and about 50,000 for the government. It has also invested 1.34 trillion won in Naver.
What’s next
Mirae Asset’s Kim said a bigger risk than the leadership change would be tighter US export controls or sanctions. Counterpoint Research, which puts Samsung’s share of global DRAM revenue at 38% in the third quarter against SK hynix’s 29%, expects Samsung to retake the HBM revenue lead from SK hynix in 2027, according to senior analyst Choi Jeong-ku. Progress on the government’s GPU distribution, which began in February, remains unclear, the report said.
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