SK Hynix has become the dominant supplier of those chips, a position that made it South Korea’s most valuable listed company this month, passing Samsung for the first time in 25 years. The two firms together supply most of the world’s HBM and have struck supply deals with Nvidia and OpenAI.

Such spending is a headwind for crypto because it is the same capital cycle that has competed with digital assets for investor money all year. Crypto fell through much of the month even on days when AI chip stocks rebounded – the divergence suggestive of how investors view the two classes.

Gabe Selby of CF Benchmarks said much of the new money and attention has flowed into AI plays, leaving crypto fighting for a smaller share of overall risk…