Yonhap News
Thirty-five companies changed in the ranking of Korea’s top 500 firms by revenue last year, with Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) firmly maintaining first place amid the artificial intelligence (AI) chip boom and SK hynix (000660.KS) entering the top five.
Corporate data research firm CEO Score announced the findings Thursday, based on domestic companies that disclosed financial information through the Financial Supervisory Service’s (FSS) electronic disclosure system. The rankings were compiled based on 2025 revenue figures.
The top four positions remained unchanged from the previous year. Samsung Electronics ranked first with revenue of 333.6 trillion won ($242 billion), up 10.9 percent year-on-year and marking an all-time high. Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Kia (000270.KS), sister companies of Hyundai Motor Group, followed in second and third place with revenues of 186.3 trillion won and 114.1 trillion won, respectively. Their combined revenue reached 300.4 trillion won, surpassing the 300 trillion won threshold for the first time. Korea Electric Power Corp. ranked fourth with 97.4 trillion won.
SK hynix came in fifth, climbing two spots from the previous year with total revenue of 97.1 trillion won, driven by surging demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key AI memory chip.
Hanwha, ranked seventh with 74.8 trillion won, rose three notches on continued large-scale defense orders amid global geopolitical instability. SK On jumped from 60th to ninth with 57.7 trillion won, expanding through successive mergers last year with SK Enterm and SK Enmove in line with SK Group’s business rebalancing strategy.
Thirty-five companies newly entered the top 500 list, two more than the previous year. These included Hanwha Hotels & Resorts (which acquired Ourhome), Sono International (which acquired Trinity Aviation), Doosan, APR, Porsche Korea, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Musinsa, Harim and Korea Toyota Motor.
Meanwhile, Hoban Construction, Korea Line, Shinsegae Food, Seohee Construction, Jin Air and Eugene Corporation dropped out of the top 500. Three companies — SK Enmove, HD Hyundai Mipo and HD Hyundai Infracore — disappeared through mergers.
The biggest gainer among the top 500 was SK Innovation, which rose 190 spots from 356th to 166th. The jump was driven by a 579.9 percent surge in dividend income, from 386.2 billion won to 2.63 trillion won.
By industry, automotive and parts companies accounted for the largest share with 49 firms (9.8 percent), followed by information technology (IT) and electronics and distribution at 39 each (7.8 percent), services at 38 (7.6 percent) and petrochemicals at 37 (7.4 percent).
Separately, a CEO Score analysis in March of the annual performance of 254 listed companies among the top 500 by revenue that submitted settlement reports showed that SK hynix posted the largest increase in operating profit last year, reaching 47.2 trillion won. The figure represents an increase of 23.7 trillion won, or 101.2 percent, from the previous year. Samsung Electronics followed with 43.6 trillion won, and Korea Electric Power Corp. ranked third with 13.5 trillion won.