Trade memory stocks 24/7: MU, SNDK, SK Hynix, Samsung
Every AI model you have ever used ran out of a memory chip. The companies that make those chips are in the strongest pricing cycle the industry has ever recorded, and their stocks refuse to keep New York hours. This page covers the sector and the seven names you can trade on Based around the clock.
What HBM did to a sleepy industry
Memory used to be the commodity end of semiconductors. DRAM and NAND prices moved in slow cycles. Producers overbuilt, prices crashed, capacity got cut, prices recovered. The stocks were cheap because everyone knew the script.
High bandwidth memory broke the script. Every serious AI accelerator needs stacks of HBM bolted right next to the GPU die, and only three companies in the world can supply it: SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung. HBM supply has repeatedly sold out more than a year in advance. That never happened in the old memory market.
The knock-on effect has been violent. Every wafer a fab converts to HBM is a wafer not making ordinary chips, so conventional memory supply tightened while data centers bought everything in sight. TrendForce recorded conventional DRAM contract prices up 93 to 98 percent quarter over quarter in the first quarter of 2026, then up another 58 to 63 percent in the second, with NAND flash climbing comparably. SemiAnalysis estimates memory now absorbs about 30 percent of hyperscaler capital spending, up from roughly 8 percent three years ago, and SK Hynix's chairman has said global memory supply is likely to run about 20 percent short of demand through 2030.
Why this sector moves while your broker sleeps
Two of the three HBM makers report, guide and trade in Seoul. Korean earnings land overnight US time. Korean export data, an early indicator the whole sector watches, lands overnight US time. Production decisions at Samsung and SK Hynix leak into Asian press overnight US time. See the pattern.
US-listed memory names gap at the open because the news that moves them already happened while the Nasdaq was closed. Micron catches Seoul's moves at 9:30 the next morning. If you trade memory through a standard brokerage account, you are structurally last in line.
The markets Based connects you to on Hyperliquid do not close, so the gap simply becomes tradable time. Earnings after hours, weekend supply headlines, a Sunday night HBM contract story: all of it happens during market hours here, because all hours are market hours.
The names, and what comes next for each
Micron (MU)
The American one. Micron is the only US company producing DRAM at scale and one of the three HBM suppliers, reporting after the US close and routinely gapping on its own numbers and on Korean news. Bullish catalysts ahead: its HBM supply is sold out through 2026 under fixed-price contracts, its 36GB 12-layer HBM4 entered volume shipments in March 2026 for Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform, and in July 2026 it raised its planned US fab and technology investment to more than $250 billion through 2035. Conventional DRAM pricing doing most of the lifting in the meantime.
SanDisk (SNDK)
The pure play. Spun out of Western Digital in 2025, SanDisk sells NAND flash and nothing else, so the stock is a clean bet on flash pricing. Bullish catalysts ahead: NAND contract prices rose 85 to 90 percent in the first quarter of 2026 and another 55 to 60 percent in the second, per TrendForce, and data center SSD demand keeps absorbing supply while the big producers keep capacity disciplined. NAND supply decisions are made largely in Asian hours.
SK Hynix (SKHX)
The HBM leader and the hardest of the group for Americans to reach, since it trades in Seoul and most US brokers cannot offer it. Bullish catalysts ahead: SK Hynix is an anchor HBM4 supplier for Nvidia's Vera Rubin ramp, with mass production scaling through the third quarter of 2026, and management has said memory supply stays short of demand through 2030. We wrote a full guide to the US access alternatives and why they fall short.
Samsung (SMSN)
The largest memory producer on earth, plus phones, displays and a foundry business, all listed only in Seoul. Bullish catalysts ahead: its HBM4 passed Nvidia qualification and entered mass production in February 2026, its CFO says 2026 HBM4 supply is sold out, and as the biggest memory maker it has the most revenue geared into the sharpest DRAM and NAND pricing cycle on record.
Kioxia (KIOXIA)
Toshiba's former memory arm, from the company where NAND flash was invented, listed in Tokyo and sharing fabs with SanDisk. Bullish catalysts ahead: the same NAND pricing recovery as SanDisk, with less of it already in the price, and any capacity discipline from its fab partner flows straight through to Kioxia's margins.
ChangXin Memory (CXMT)
China's homegrown DRAM champion and its answer to the big three. It listed on Shanghai's STAR Market on July 27, 2026 in that market's largest IPO ever, closing its first day up 466 percent, but the STAR Market is effectively closed to foreign retail investors, so the 24/7 perp is the practical route in. Bullish catalysts ahead: the strongest DRAM pricing cycle in decades lifting a newcomer's revenue fastest, a DDR5 capacity ramp funded by the IPO proceeds, a push toward higher-value HBM-class memory, and passive index inclusion flows. The honest counterweight is policy: US export controls already limit the advanced equipment CXMT can buy, and tighter rules are a standing risk.
Western Digital (WDC)
Hard drives for data centers. After handing NAND to SanDisk, WDC is the cleanest way to trade mass storage demand. Bullish catalysts ahead: AI data centers keep filling with nearline drives, the industry is down to a disciplined handful of suppliers, and every dollar of hyperscaler capex that cannot go to scarce DRAM still has to store the data somewhere.
Micron Technology (MU)
$964.81-1.7%24h
Nasdaq · United States · quoted in USD
SanDisk (SNDK)
$1,598-0.7%24h
Nasdaq · United States · quoted in USD
SK Hynix (SKHX)
$1,248-2.3%24h
KRX (Seoul) · South Korea · quoted in USD
Samsung Electronics (SMSN)
$194.46-4.1%24h
KRX (Seoul) · South Korea · quoted in USD
Kioxia (KIOXIA)
$336.12-1.9%24h
TSE (Tokyo) · Japan · quoted in USD
ChangXin Memory (CXMT)
$8.54+0.1%24h
SSE STAR (Shanghai) · China · quoted in USD
Western Digital (WDC)
$459.89-3.1%24h
Nasdaq · United States · quoted in USD
The demand side of the trade
The buyers of all this memory trade on Based too: Nvidia, whose accelerator roadmap sets the HBM order book, AMD, Broadcom and TSMC. So does Intel, whose server CPUs ride the same data center buildout. Nothing to do with memory, but frequently searched for by the same people: the SpaceX (SPCX) market and Unitree, the humanoid robot maker that listed in Shanghai this week. Browse everything on the markets index.
Hours, side by side
| When can you trade? | Based | Traditional broker |
|---|---|---|
| Weekdays, 9:30am to 4pm ET | Open | Open |
| Weeknights | Open | Closed, or limited after-hours sessions |
| Saturdays and Sundays | Open | Closed |
| Market holidays | Open | Closed |
How trading works here
The markets are perpetual futures on Hyperliquid, a decentralised trading platform, tracking each stock's price. Based is the self-custody wallet you trade them from, not a broker. You get price exposure, long or short, with leverage available. You do not own the underlying shares, so there are no dividends and no voting rights, and perp positions carry liquidation risk and pay funding while open. Access needs no brokerage account and no bank account, just a self-custodial wallet funded with USDC.
Start in three steps
- Step 1
Connect a wallet
Any self-custodial wallet works. No account application, no paperwork.
- Step 2
Fund it
Deposit USDC. You do not need a bank account to do it.
- Step 3
Trade 24/7
Stock perps, crypto perps and prediction markets. Nights, weekends, holidays.
Based is a self-custody wallet, not a broker. Markets are perpetual futures on Hyperliquid: derivatives with liquidation risk and funding fees, not the underlying stocks or coins.