SK Hynix has topped a $1 trillion market capitalisation for the first time. It is the second listed company in South Korea to do so after Samsung Electronics.

The Korea Exchange said SK Hynix was trading at 2,245,000 won as of 9:10 a.m. on May 27, up 9.41 percent from the previous session. Its market value expanded to 1.60 quadrillion won from 1.46 quadrillion won a day earlier.

Applying an exchange rate of 1,503.10 won to the dollar at the same time, SK Hynix's market capitalisation was worth about $1.06 trillion.

This lifted the number of companies on South Korea's stock market with market capitalisations above $1 trillion to 2: Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Samsung Electronics first topped $1 trillion in market value on May 6, becoming the second in Asia to enter the $1 trillion club after Taiwan's TSMC. SK Hynix joined the milestone 3 weeks later.

Among Asian companies, it is the third after TSMC and Samsung Electronics. The rise in share prices is seen as being driven by expanding demand for artificial intelligence, or AI, semiconductors and expectations of improving conditions in the memory sector.

SK Hynix also gained prominence in the rankings of global companies by market capitalisation. Based on an overseas market-cap tracking site, SK Hynix was valued at $1.05 trillion, ranking 12th globally.

Based on the same site, Samsung Electronics ranked 11th with $1.38 trillion. Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, Broadcom, Aramco, Tesla and Meta also appeared near the top of the global market-cap list.