South Korea Surpasses Canada as World's 7th Equity Market
South Korea surpassed Canada to become the world's seventh-largest equity market by capitalization, driven by surging AI chip demand. Samsung and SK Hynix shares have more than doubled year-to-date as hyperscaler HBM and memory orders accelerate. This marks the first time South Korea has entered the global top-seven equity markets.
Why It Matters
One country's chip-making ecosystem driving a national equity market into the global top-seven illustrates the concentration of AI infrastructure value in semiconductor supply chains. It validates the bull case for HBM and high-capacity memory as the non-substitutable component in the AI build-out cycle.