Samsung shares in South Korea jumped the most in nearly 6 years to a record high after co-CEO Jun Young Hyun quoted customers as saying, “Samsung is back.”

In a New Year's memo to employees, Jun said customers have praised the differentiated competitiveness of its next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, or HBM4, saying, "It's even earning an assessment from customers that 'Samsung is back'."

Samsung has lost high-bandwidth memory market share to SK Hynix in recent years and hopes its next-generation HBMs will fuel a turnaround this year.

The memo noted that Samsung will also benefit from favorable memory market conditions this year, as demand for artificial intelligence chips has materialized much quicker than initially anticipated.

Memory prices have surged (further insight here).

Samsung shares on the Korea Exchange closed up 7.4%, the largest daily increase since March 2020. The stock surged to record highs, delivering a strong start to the year as AI tailwinds lifted stocks in Asia and Europe, with US futures firmly in the green.

UBS analyst Marisa Vethanayagam commented on the strong start for Asia and European markets, led by technology...

European equities trade off the early highs, with the Euro Stoxx 50 (SX5E) up 35bp as volumes begin to pick up at the start of the new year. Broadly, Cyclicals outperform Defensives by about 50bp, and consensus longs lead shorts similarly by some 50bp. Tech is the market leader on Friday (SX8P up 2%), led by Semis (UBXESEMI up 4%) after a strong Asian handover (positive sentiment from Samsung, Baidu, and IPO Biren). In contrast, UK Real Estate is one of the worst-performing sectors (UBXEUKRL down 1%) following a 0.4% m/m decline in UK house prices versus the expected +0.1%. The desk is much better for sale overall 78/22, mainly driven by long only, while hedge funds are better to buy. The busiest sectors are Financials, Industrials, and Tech, all better for sale.

In a separate note, UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois said "conventional memory pricing expected to turbo-charge earnings" for Samsung.

"We see the ongoing upside in conventional memory pricing as the main stock driver for Samsung. At 1.43x NTM book, we believe the stock is not yet discounting the strength and length of the upcycle ahead," Gaudois said.

Tim Waterer, chief market analyst, told Bloomberg, "What we are seeing today is a continuation of the run higher in equities, with AI and tech again at the forefront," adding, "Traders are still in a buying mood, with many of the bullish themes from 2025 carrying forward into 2026."