The Short Answer
SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics each announced trillion-won purchases of their own stock within three days of each other. But according to the legal classification in their own filings, only SK Hynix's transaction permanently reduces the share count. Samsung's filing states its purpose as employee and executive share-based compensation, which means the repurchased shares are ultimately distributed to employees and return to the float. Describing both as "Korean memory returning cash to shareholders" does not hold up against the filings.
Data as-of: Korean equities are 2026-08-21 close (settled). DART filings are primary source text (receipt numbers in the table below). US equities are 2026-08-21 intraday at 10:35 ET (roughly 65 minutes into the session, not settled, and not the basis for any conclusion in this article). FX as-of 2026-08-21. Article generated 2026-08-21 22:35 CST.
What Exactly Did Each Company File?
| Item | SK Hynix (000660) | Samsung Electronics (005930) |
|---|---|---|
| DART receipt no. | 20260819800340 | 20260821000616 |
| Filing type | Share Cancellation Decision | Treasury Share Acquisition Decision |
| Board resolution date | 2026-08-19 | 2026-08-21 |
| Shares | 24,070,000 | 53,285,968 |
| Amount | KRW 40,004,340,000,000 (~$28.92B) | KRW 14,999,999,992,000 (~$10.84B) |
| Shares outstanding | 730,492,365 | 5,846,278,600 |
| % of shares outstanding | 3.295% | 0.911% |
| Stated purpose | Acquire, then retire in full at once | Employee/executive share-based compensation |
| Reference price | KRW 1,662,000 (08-18 close, day before board) | KRW 281,500 (2026-08-21) |
| Execution window | 2026-08-20 → 2026-11-19 | 2026-08-24 → 2026-11-21 |
| Method | On-market purchase | On-market purchase |
| Broker(s) | SK Securities | Samsung Securities, Shinhan Securities, KB Securities |
Both sets of figures self-validate. KRW 40,004,340,000,000 ÷ KRW 1,662,000 = 24,070,000 shares exactly, and KRW 14,999,999,992,000 ÷ KRW 281,500 = 53,285,968 shares exactly. Both filings therefore fix the won amount first and derive the share count from a reference price.
The Difference Is Not Size, It Is Kind
By amount, SK Hynix is 2.67x Samsung. As a percentage of shares outstanding, it is 3.62x. But the more important line is item 5 of Samsung's filing, its stated purpose:
Treasury shares are being acquired for the purpose of share-based compensation for executives and employees (performance incentives, special management performance bonuses, etc.)
Meanwhile item 11 of SK Hynix's filing states that after acquisition the shares will be cancelled in full at one time, reducing shares outstanding while leaving capital stock unchanged.
One transaction makes shares permanently disappear. The other changes who holds them and then returns them to the float. Their long-run effects on earnings per share point in different directions, and they should not be summed together.
An Under-Priced Mechanic: The Amount Is Locked, the Share Count Is Not
Both filings carry the same qualifier: the figure recorded is the acquisition amount, and the actual number of shares acquired will vary with the share price. SK Hynix's filing states explicitly that the final share count will be disclosed through a subsequent correction filing.
The implication: the more the stock rises, the fewer shares the same money buys, and the smaller the cancellation becomes.
SK Hynix's reference price is KRW 1,662,000 (the 08-18 close). By the 08-21 close the stock was at KRW 1,730,000, 4.09% above that reference.
| Scenario | Shares purchasable | % of shares outstanding |
|---|---|---|
| As filed (at KRW 1,662,000) | 24,070,000 | 3.295% |
| Recalculated at 08-21 close of KRW 1,730,000 | ~23,123,896 | 3.166% |
| Difference | ~ −946,104 shares | −0.130 percentage points |
In other words, the three-day rally since the announcement has already shrunk the effective size of this cancellation by roughly 946,000 shares. The window runs to 2026-11-19; further gains compress it further, and declines do the opposite. This is a buyback with built-in negative feedback: the better the stock performs, the fewer shares are actually retired.
Where Did Foreign Money Go That Same Day?
Korean market close, 2026-08-21 (settled):
| Close | Change | Volume | Foreign net buy | % of volume | Foreign ownership | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics | KRW 281,500 | +3.87% | 27,672,000 | +1,567,349 sh | 5.66% | 46.82% → 46.88% |
| SK Hynix | KRW 1,730,000 | +2.31% | 4,247,000 | +6,014 sh | 0.14% | 51.03% → 51.05% |
Foreign investors bought roughly 261 times more shares of Samsung than of SK Hynix by share count. SK Hynix had seen foreign net buying of 312,973 shares on the prior session; that collapsed to about 1.9% of that level in one day.
One caveat must be stated plainly: this table cannot be used to explain the previous section. Intuition suggests the larger cancellation should attract more buying, yet the direction is the opposite. Single-session flow data is not sufficient to establish causation, and this article records the two facts side by side without attributing one to the other.
One potentially related but unconfirmed piece of context: SK Hynix made three additional disclosures on 08-21, including an exchange inquiry regarding a rumor or media report (20260821800214) and the company's same-day response (20260821800524, which contains the date 2026-09-18), with the response characterized as "undetermined." The substance of the inquiry is not readable, so this is a coincidence in timing, not an explanation.
US Session Status (Intraday, Reference Only)
The following are live readings at 2026-08-21 10:35 ET. The US market has not closed and these do not support any conclusion here:
| Ticker | Price | Intraday change |
|---|---|---|
| Micron (MU) | 966.12 | −0.84% |
| SanDisk (SNDK) | 1,587.80 | −0.80% |
| Western Digital (WDC) | 464.52 | −0.97% |
| Semiconductor ETF (SMH) | 558.86 | −0.67% |
| NVIDIA (NVDA) | 214.63 | −1.02% |
| Broadcom (AVGO) | 368.24 | +1.16% |
| Nasdaq ETF (QQQ) | 710.70 | −0.03% |
| S&P 500 ETF (SPY) | 764.69 | +0.27% |
Note this is the inverse of the prior settled session (08-20), when broad indices fell while memory names rallied sharply. On 08-21 intraday, broad indices are flat to firm while memory is weaker. The two observations cover different window lengths — one a full trading day, one 65 minutes — and must not be strung into a trend.
Verifiable Forward Checkpoints
- 2026-11-19 — End of SK Hynix's acquisition window. A correction filing should then disclose the final actual cancelled share count, which is the direct test of the amount-locked, share-count-floating mechanic described above.
- 2026-11-21 — End of Samsung's acquisition window.
- 2026-09-18 — A date appearing in SK Hynix's 08-21 inquiry response; contents unknown.
- Samsung's single-day purchase order cap is 7,321,653 shares (taken from the filing; it equals 25% of average daily volume over the month preceding the resolution and is the binding constraint among the three statutory tests). This can be used to model execution pace.
Method and Sources
- All corporate action data is taken from primary filing text on DART (Korea's Financial Supervisory Service electronic disclosure system). Receipt numbers are cited inline for independent verification.
- Korean prices and volumes are 2026-08-21 settled closing values. Investor-type net buy/sell figures are KRX investor-type data for the same session.
- US quotes are a Tiger market data snapshot at 2026-08-21 10:35 ET, explicitly flagged as intraday and unsettled.
- FX was converted through a live rate interface, as-of 2026-08-21. No fixed rate constant was used.
- This is public-layer analysis containing only publicly disclosed information and calculations derived from public data. It contains no position, sizing, or trade execution information.