Dan Ives: “Excessive correction” in Samsung and SK hynix shares; China’s memory sector three years behind [fn Market Watch]

[Financial News] Dan Ives, a leading Wall Street tech-stock bull and partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives & Co., said the recent sharp declines in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shares were “an excessive correction.” He said Chinese memory chipmakers are about three years behind South Korea technologically, while a memory supply shortage driven by increased investment in artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to last through 2029. Citing the start of a supercycle in memory semiconductors, he forecast that companies’ valuations would rise over the next 12–18 months and said now was a buying opportunity.
At a press conference held at the Conrad Seoul hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the 14th, Dan Ives said, “There has been an excessive correction across the Korean stock market, not just in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix,” adding, “I think the current selling pressure is almost over.”
He said, “Global investors are significantly underestimating the growth potential of the memory semiconductor industry. Investors are focusing too heavily on the memory industry’s cyclical nature, but we have already entered a full-fledged memory supercycle.” He added, “We expect the valuations of memory-related companies to rise over the next 12–18 months.”
He also said concerns about China’s technological advances, cited as a cause of the recent steep drop in South Korean semiconductor stocks, were exaggerated. Those concerns arose after China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) announced plans to launch next-generation DDR5 memory products for servers within the year, prompting questions about whether Samsung Electronics and SK hynix could lose market share.
Ives said, “Leading memory companies, including those in South Korea, are about three years ahead of China technologically. Chinese companies may narrow the technology gap in the future, but current concerns are excessive.”
He said the two companies differed in when they would be able to monetize their strengths. “I included SK hynix among my top tech-stock picks this year,” he said, explaining, “Looking to 2026, SK hynix is in a more advantageous strategic position to monetize the AI revolution.”
He also maintained a positive outlook for Samsung Electronics. Ives said, “Samsung Electronics has a strong business foundation in the mobile and consumer sectors,” and forecast, “Next year, that foundation will allow it to benefit even more from the AI revolution.” He added, “The difference in how we view the two companies as investments has more to do with when the benefits will materialize than with their growth potential.”
The expansion of global AI capital spending underpins this optimism. Ives forecast, “Over the next several years, $3 trillion–$4 trillion in capital expenditures (CAPEX) will be made in the global AI industry.” The analysis is that increased data-center investment by major cloud companies will drive growth not only in semiconductors but also across software, cybersecurity, power and energy infrastructure.
He said, “The AI revolution has not even reached 15% of its overall progress, and companies’ actual level of AI adoption is only around 5%,” adding, “The demand-to-supply ratio for Nvidia AI chips alone stands at 13 to 1.”
Ives compared the current AI investment cycle not to the peak of the dot-com bubble in 1999–2000, but to the early growth phase of the internet industry in 1997. He said the tech-stock bull market could continue for another two to three years and also raised the possibility that the Nasdaq could rise to between 30,000 and 35,000 over the medium to long term.
 
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