For Allerman, a South Korean maker of bedding, its most profitable product last year was not a duvet or mattress cover. It was semiconductor stocks.
The company's investments in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix generated unrealized gains of about 37.6 billion won ($27.7 million), exceeding the operating profit it earned from its core bedding business.
According to Allerman's latest audit report, the company purchased 30,000 Samsung Electronics shares and 17,132 SK hynix shares last year for a combined 13.3 billion won.
Those investments have since soared in value as South Korea's two memory-chip giants ride the artificial intelligence-driven rally.
Based on Monday's closing prices, Allerman's Samsung Electronics stake was worth about 10.5 billion won, while its SK hynix holdings were valued at roughly 40.5 billion won. Together, the two positions were close to 51 billion won -- nearly four times the original investment.
The resulting paper gain of approximately 37.6 billion won exceeded Allerman's 2025 operating profit of 26.9 billion won. The company reported annual revenue of 123.6 billion won.
Much of the windfall has come from SK hynix, whose shares have surged on booming demand for high-bandwidth memory, a critical component in AI servers. Samsung Electronics has also rallied sharply as investors bet on a recovery in its AI memory business and growing participation in Nvidia's next-generation AI ecosystem.
Samsung Electronics closed Monday at 349,000 won, while SK hynix ended at 2,363,000 won, both near record highs as enthusiasm for AI infrastructure continues to propel semiconductor stocks.
The gains have created an unlikely winner. As Korea's chip boom reshapes the stock market, even a bedding company is finding that its semiconductor investments are generating bigger profits than selling bedding.
silverstar@heraldcorp.com
