A new all-time high for Micron and a 10% rally in SK Hynix have expanded the select list of the ‘Trillion-Dollar Club’ to 15 companies, a third of which belong to the semiconductor sector.
Report by Morgan Stanley
Following the new all-time high reached on Tuesday by Micron, the company has joined for the first time the exclusive group of firms with a market capitalisation exceeding $1 trillion – a European billion – and overnight, a 10% rally in SK hynix has helped to expand this list. This brings the total to 15 companies globally, of which approximately a third belong to the semiconductor sector.
The PHLX Semiconductor Sector index (SOX) – the market-capitalisation-weighted index comprising the 30 largest companies listed in the United States – rose a further 5.5% on Tuesday, having already accumulated a year-on-year rise of over 80%, making 2026, with just five months gone, the second-best year in history for the index. The only year to surpass this return is 1999, when the SOX more than doubled (101%).
Despite signs of a possible ‘melt-up’ (rapid, parabolic rise) in semiconductors, with the NDX recently surpassing 30,000 for the first time and US Beta and Cyclicals versus Defendives factors hitting new all-time highs, it is worth noting that cross-asset behaviour does not yet indicate an environment of ‘euphoria’. The Morgan Stanley Global Risk Demand Index reached +1.2 on Tuesday, still below the +2 threshold that would signal a scenario of euphoria.
