In the early 2000s a sharp downturn(急剧下滑) in the market for memory chips pushed Hynix Semiconductor, as it was known at the time, to the brink of collapse(濒临崩溃). Sales fell by half, and the South Korean company’s market capitalisation sank to just above $500m. A decade of brutal restructuring(残酷的重组) ensued, during which it narrowly survived(险险幸存) an effort by Micron, an American competitor, to buy it for parts. In 2012 the floundering(挣扎的，困境中的) chipmaker was acquired by SK Group, a local conglomerate(本土企业集团).
21世纪初，内存芯片市场的急剧下滑将当时名为Hynix Semiconductor的公司推到了崩溃边缘。销售额下降了一半，这家韩国公司的市值跌至仅略高于5亿美元。随后经历了十年残酷的重组，期间它险险避过了美国竞争对手美光（Micron）试图收购其部分资产的企图。2012年，这家陷入困境的芯片制造商被韩国本土企业集团SK集团收购。
These days things look very different for SK Hynix. In June it briefly dethroned(废黜，取代) Samsung Electronics as South Korea’s most valuable company. It is now neck-and-neck(并驾齐驱) with its long-time rival in the global market for memory chips, and well ahead(遥遥领先) in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM(高带宽内存)) required for artificial intelligence.
如今，SK海力士的情况已大不相同。6月，它曾短暂超越三星电子，成为韩国市值最高的公司。如今，它在全球内存芯片市场上与长期竞争对手并驾齐驱，并在人工智能所需的高带宽内存（HBM）领域遥遥领先。
The AI boom has fuelled a vertiginous rise(惊人的上涨) in SK Hynix’s market capitalisation, which in May passed $1trn. On July 10th the company listed its shares on America’s Nasdaq exchange(纳斯达克交易所), raising $26.5bn in the process, a record for a foreign company. Although its share price slumped on the following trading day, with investors wary of the increasingly lofty valuations of chipmakers, it is still up by around 1,000% since the start of 2025.(尽管次日股价下跌，但自2025年初以来仍上涨约1000%。) The money raised in the listing, along with the $50bn of cash its operations generated in the 12 months to March, will fund an ambitious expansion (see chart). “We’re going to double our whole capacity in the next five years,” Chey Tae-won, the chairman of SK Group, pledged last month. Appetite for its chips is voracious(贪婪的，巨大的): sales in its most recent quarter were triple the level(是……的三倍) a year earlier.
人工智能热潮推动了SK海力士市值的惊人增长，其市值在5月突破1万亿美元。7月10日，该公司在纽约纳斯达克上市，募资265亿美元，创下外国公司在美上市纪录。尽管次日股价下跌，投资者对芯片制造商日益高企的估值感到担忧，但自2025年初以来，其股价仍上涨了约1000%。上市所募资金，加上截至3月的12个月内运营产生的500亿美元现金，将为雄心勃勃的扩张提供资金（见图表）。"我们将在未来五年内将总产能翻倍，"SK集团董事长崔泰源上月承诺。市场对其芯片的需求旺盛：最近一个季度的销售额是去年同期的三倍。
A trip down memory lane
回顾内存市场周期