Key points
- SK Hynix falls 7.08% after Intel's PC warning
- What Intel said about memory prices and PC sales
- Samsung's phone and TV division felt the same memory costs
On October 30, SK Hynix (000660) fell 7.08% in Seoul to 1,418,000 won ($1,063), a day after Intel said high memory prices are slowing sales of PCs. Samsung Electronics (005930) fell 3.02% to 225,000 won ($169).
The Kospi fell 3.48%, and the Kosdaq fell 3.83%. Foreign investors sold a net of more than 1.6 trillion won ($1.2B) of Kospi shares, Asia Economy (아시아경제) reported.
"Weak outlooks and the burden of huge capital spending stood out at the same time in the earnings from Alphabet, Intel, and Amazon," said Lee Kyung-min, head of fixed income, currencies, and commodities (FICC) research at Daishin Securities (대신증권). "Doubts grew about whether AI investment can continue and make money, and investor sentiment weakened," Lee said, according to Donghaeng Media Sidae (동행미디어 시대).
Intel blamed memory prices for a PC slowdown
Intel reported its third-quarter results late on October 29 in the US, which was before the Seoul market opened on October 30. Intel expects revenue from its PC chip business to fall more than 20% from the third quarter to the fourth, as PC makers cut the stock of chips they're holding.
"In recent weeks, our customers began signaling a PC slowdown based on the memory prices and availability," said Lip-Bu Tan, Intel's chief executive, on the earnings call. He also said, "We expect the current environment to persist until memory availability and prices begin to normalize."
Intel expects PC unit sales across the industry to fall about 12% this year and is planning for a fall of about 10% in 2027. "But make no mistake, we are not optimistic about next year in terms of memory," said David Zinsner, Intel's chief financial officer. Our Intel earnings story has the rest of the company's forecast.
SK Hynix and Samsung make memory chips, including the DRAM that goes into PCs. So when Intel says memory prices are hurting PC demand, it's talking about the price of what the two Korean companies sell.
SK Hynix had given a similar warning two days earlier. "In PCs and mobile, shipments will fall because of the cost burden from rising memory prices and the supply shortage, but higher demand for AI infrastructure will more than make up for it, and the overall memory market will keep growing," said Kim Woo-hyun, SK Hynix's chief financial officer, on the company's October 28 earnings call, according to a transcript published by TheElec (디일렉).
The drop ended a three-day rally
SK Hynix had risen 19.7% in three days, from its October 26 close to October 29, by our calculations. It reported record third-quarter results on October 28 and approved a new buyback. Even after October 30, the shares are 11.2% above their October 26 close.
The Kospi closed above 6,000 on October 28 and fell back below it the next day. Korean business broadcaster Hankyung TV (한국경제TV) titled its evening market analysis "Memory prices, a serious problem," citing Intel. The same report said Wall Street's hopes for a market bottom in late October had faded.
Samsung's phone and TV division felt the same memory costs
Both companies' memory businesses had record quarters. SK Hynix earned 83.3 trillion won ($62.4B) of operating profit in the third quarter. Samsung's chip division earned 106.5 trillion won ($79.8B), and Samsung said its memory business set a quarterly record.
Samsung's Device eXperience, the division that makes Galaxy phones, TVs, and home appliances, posted an operating loss of 0.8 trillion won ($600M) in the third quarter. Samsung said rising prices for parts, including memory, kept raising the division's costs, as we reported in our Samsung results story.
Samsung shares had already fallen 4.13% on October 29, after the company didn't give new detail on buybacks.
"We expect the high volatility in the Korean market to continue for a while," said Cho A-in, an analyst at Samsung Securities (삼성증권). "Whether this stays a temporary drop in investor sentiment or leads to lower profit forecasts for AI companies is the key variable that will decide where the market goes next."
The analyst comments, Kim Woo-hyun's comments, and the Hankyung TV headline are translated from Korean. Won figures are converted at 1,334.2 won to the dollar, the Yahoo Finance rate on October 30, 2026.
