May 12, 2026 · 7 min read · Originally posted on stockdigging.com
📌 All figures in this article are objective data points read directly from the comparison page on stockdigging.com. Nothing here constitutes a buy or sell recommendation. Investment decisions are solely your responsibility.
Five semiconductor names: TSMC, Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Micron, AMD. Five years of data. Let's see what the numbers actually say — and at the end, I'll be honest about how the numbers feel to me, sitting in Korea and watching this play out without participating.
1. Top of the market cap list — semiconductors are already there
Looking at the global market cap leaderboard, seven of the top 17 publicly listed companies are semiconductor names — including NVIDIA, which sits above the frame shown below.
- NVIDIA (largest of the seven, above the frame)
- TSMC: $2.13T
- Broadcom: $2.04T
- Samsung Electronics: $1.15T
- SK hynix: $909.56B
- Micron Technology: $840.14B
- Advanced Micro Devices: $741.96B
That's seven out of the top seventeen — over 40% of the global market cap leaderboard.
NVIDIA sits above the frame of this image. The five names tracked from here on are TSMC, Samsung, SK hynix, Micron, and AMD.
2. Year-to-date — four out of five are up triple digits
Through May 2026, YTD cumulative returns:
- SK hynix: +177.70%
- Micron: +136.76%
- Samsung Electronics: +122.18%
- AMD: +103.69%
- TSMC: +28.75%
For context, the KOSPI is up +81.51% YTD and the S&P 500 is up +7.88%. Four of the five names sit above both benchmarks; TSMC sits between the KOSPI and the S&P 500.
3. Three-year view — SK hynix and Micron lead the group
Zooming out to 2023 → 2026:
- SK hynix: +2,055.96%
- Micron: +1,140.97%
- TSMC: +383.79%
- AMD: +378.84%
- Samsung Electronics: +345.40%
SK hynix is up roughly 20x. Micron more than 11x. The other three are between 4.4x and 4.8x. Next, the revenue and operating income figures.
4. Revenue — Samsung leads every year
Samsung Electronics has the tallest revenue bar in every year of the five-year window. FY2025 figures:
- Samsung: $226.87B
- TSMC: $124.15B
- SK hynix: $66.07B
- Micron: $37.38B
- AMD: $34.64B
Samsung's revenue is roughly 1.8x TSMC, 3.4x SK hynix, 6x Micron, and 6.5x AMD.
5. Operating income — the picture flips
Move from top line to operating income and the rankings change:
- FY2023 was the trough year — SK hynix and Micron both posted negative operating income.
- In FY2025, TSMC's operating income bar is the tallest in the chart.
- SK hynix moved from a loss in FY2023 to a large positive in FY2025.
- Samsung's FY2025 op. income bar is shorter than TSMC's, despite Samsung's larger revenue.
- AMD's op. income bar is the smallest among the five in FY2025.
On the operating income line, Samsung's lead from the revenue chart disappears. TSMC, SK hynix, and Micron post higher operating margins (53.25%, 48.59%, 48.52%) than Samsung (13.07%) and AMD (10.67%).
6. The full metric snapshot
Per-name analysis of the same table follows in §7.
7. Strengths and weaknesses
TSMC — most profitable, most cash. Weakest YTD.
- Op margin 53.25%, net income $55.99B — both highest.
- Cash $89.03B, FCF $35.41B — both largest.
- EV/EBITDA 23.42x, Net Debt/EBITDA 0.39x — both lowest.
- Weakness: YTD +28.75% — lowest of the five.
Samsung — largest by scale, lowest per-dollar profitability.
- Revenue $226.87B (1.8x TSMC), largest total assets and workforce.
- Weakness: Op margin 13.07%, ROE 10.36% — bottom half of the group.
- Bright spot: P/B 4.46x — lowest, the cheapest on price-to-book.
SK hynix — strongest returns and cheapest P/E. Highest leverage.
- 3Y +2,055.96%, YTD +177.70% — both highest.
- Op margin 48.59%, ROE 35.57%, P/E 31.89x (lowest) — profitable and still cheap after a 20x run.
- Weakness: debt ratio 48.43% — highest of the five.
Micron — strongest growth and ROE. Smallest absolute earnings.
- Revenue growth 85.55%, ROE 40.84%, PEG 0.40x — all best-in-group.
- Catch: net income $8.54B, FCF $1.67B — smallest of the five.
AMD — cleanest balance sheet. Highest valuation, weakest profitability.
- Debt ratio 22.11%, current ratio 2.85x — safest balance sheet of the five.
- Disconnect: P/E 170.53x (5x the others), ROE 7.18%, Op margin 10.67% — both lowest.
Cross-reference — revenue growth lines up with 3-year return
- By FY2025 revenue growth: Micron (85.55%) → SK hynix (46.76%) → AMD (34.34%) → TSMC (31.35%) → Samsung (10.88%).
- By 3Y return: SK hynix (+2,055.96%) → Micron (+1,140.97%) → TSMC (+383.79%) → AMD (+378.84%) → Samsung (+345.40%).
- Top and bottom match; the middle reshuffles.
- Operating margin doesn't follow — TSMC has the highest margin but the lowest YTD.
So… is anything still cheap here?
The data tells a different story for each name:
- TSMC: highest operating margin, largest cash, lowest EV/EBITDA, lowest YTD return. Market cap $2.13T.
- Samsung Electronics: largest revenue and assets, lowest P/B (4.46x), highest FCF Yield (2.24%). Operating margin 13.07% and ROE 10.36% — in the lower half of the group.
- SK hynix: highest 3Y return (+2,055.96%), lowest P/E (31.89x). Highest debt ratio (48.43%).
- Micron: highest ROE (40.84%) and revenue growth (85.55%), lowest PEG (0.40x). Smallest absolute net income ($8.54B) and FCF ($1.67B) in the group.
- AMD: lowest debt ratio (22.11%). P/E 170.53x — the highest in the group.
Five names, five different profiles. On traditional value multiples (P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA), SK hynix, Samsung, and TSMC sit at the lower end of the group, while Micron and AMD trade at higher multiples — Micron with a PEG of 0.40x, AMD with a P/E of 170.53x.
And here's the personal part. I'm Korean. I'm not an investor — I'm hooked on vibe coding and busy building a stock website while watching all of this happen. Most of the move came in roughly the last year — the KOSPI itself is up more than 3x in that window.
Korea right now is obsessed with stocks. It's the topic at lunch, on the subway. Almost everyone I know is buying, and most of them keep buying more. The FOMO is real, and I don't pretend it isn't.
🤔 What's your read on these five? Look at the data on stockdigging.com/compare and decide for yourself. No targets, no recommendations — just numbers.
Tags: semiconductors stocks data investing korea
Originally published at stockdigging.com.
Top comments (0)