Samsung becomes first Korean firm to cross $1 trillion market cap

On Thursday, Samsung became the first South Korean company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalisation milestone (via Jukan). According to Companies Market Cap, the brand’s valuation stood at $1.025 trillion at the close of trading on February 26, 2026.

Currently, only thirteen companies worldwide have a market capitalisation of $1 trillion or more. On Thursday, Samsung ranked twelfth, ahead of Walmart. However, since then, its valuation has slipped to $1.004 trillion, placing the tech giant in thirteenth position.

Here is what may helped Samsung achieve the milestone

A day earlier, Samsung unveiled its latest lineup of non-foldable flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S26 series. With a strong focus on AI, its announcement may have helped the company go past the $1 trillion mark. But the milestone cannot be attributed to its launch alone.

Samsung’s semiconductor manufacturing business, Samsung Foundry, may have also played a crucial role. After it introduced its second-generation 2nm fabrication process, several firms around the globe — including Apple and Tesla — have made a deal with it to get their chips manufactured. AMD and ByteDance may also jump on the bandwagon soon.

Another major driver has been soaring demand for memory chips. As AI adoption accelerates, demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in particular has surged. Samsung is one of only three major memory manufacturers globally and a leader in the HBM segment, which has allowed it to capitalise significantly on the AI-driven boom in memory sales.