"We put 300 million won of marriage funds half into Samsung Electronics, half into SK Hynix": Civil servant’s all‐in bet reveals blind faith in AI semiconductors

[The Financial News] "My girlfriend and I agreed, and today we put all the marriage funds we’ve saved half into Samsung Electronics and half into SK Hynix."This post appeared on February 24 on Blind, an anonymous workplace community app. The author, who identified himself as a civil servant and was referred to as Mr. A, wrote that he invested 300 million won he had saved for wedding expenses and a jeonse deposit, putting 150 million won each into Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares.

Mr. A explained his reasoning, saying, "My girlfriend and I both believe this 300 million won will become 1 billion won in a year, so we thought long and hard about going straight into a home in Seoul in one shot," and added, "It still feels like the early stage of a bull market, and we judged this to be an opportunity in the era of the 'New Normal for Domestic Stocks.'"
So far, Mr. A’s bold move has been paying off. Backed by a strong rally in share prices, Samsung Electronics closed around 218,000 won and SK Hynix around 1,099,000 won at the end of trading on the 26th, continuing to set fresh record highs day after day. Based on this surge, his investment return is estimated to have exceeded 9% in just a few days.
The post has drawn attention as a vivid example of the aggressive investing behavior of retail investors trying to ride the boom in AI semiconductors, at a time when the KOSPI has entered what some call the "Yukcheonpi" era after breaking through the 6,000 level. Many see it as evidence of just how overheated expectations have become for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the two semiconductor giants that are driving the domestic stock market.

Underlying this all-in mentality is the steep earnings growth of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, along with retail investors’ firm belief in the continued expansion of the AI semiconductor market.
As Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix pull the KOSPI higher in tandem, a powerful Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) has taken hold among investors, who increasingly expect semiconductor stocks to climb far higher from here. Brokerages are also reinforcing this optimism, emphasizing the likelihood that the memory semiconductor industry is entering a supercycle and issuing a stream of rosy forecasts. Recently, global investment bank Macquarie Group, citing the spread of AI services, projected that prices for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash memory will see unprecedented increases, and dramatically raised its target prices for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to 340,000 won and 1.7 million won, respectively.
However, warnings about this kind of all-in investing are growing louder. Even under the original post, many commenters expressed concern about using marriage funds for stock trading, saying things like, "This isn’t investing, it’s what you’d call gambling," and "You should never invest money you’ll need by a certain date in stocks; you’re supposed to use surplus funds, so this is worrying."
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter