South Korea’s foreign exchange authorities purchased roughly $20 billion in U.S. dollars that SK Hynix sold after completing its $26.5 billion American depositary receipt listing in July, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n
The Foreign Exchange Stabilization Fund, overseen jointly by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Bank of Korea, acquired the greenbacks through over-the-counter transactions as the chipmaker repatriated its Wall Street proceeds to the domestic market, the person said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.<\/p>\n
While it was widely understood that the memory chip giant would bring the funds back to South Korea, the identity of the ultimate buyer for the bulk of the repatriated dollars had not previously been reported. SK Hynix, the finance ministry, and the central bank all declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The transaction marks a departure from the types of currency interventions Korean authorities have historically deployed. By purchasing the dollars directly from SK Hynix rather than selling them into the open market, the government can replenish its depleted foreign reserves while simultaneously cushioning the won from the upward pressure that would accompany a large corporate repatriation.<\/p>\n
South Korea does not officially disclose the asset composition or current size of the stabilization fund, a sovereign pool made up exclusively of dollars and won. Under an operational plan confirmed by the National Assembly last year, the fund stood at 135.1 trillion won (approximately $99.0 billion). The government’s budget proposal released Tuesday projects it at around 106.5 trillion won (approximately $78.0 billion).<\/p>\n
Market participants and macroeconomists have speculated for months that the dollar portion of the fund has shrunk considerably, the result of aggressive and persistent interventions by the Bank of Korea to defend the local currency. The won ranked among Asia’s worst-performing currencies in 2025 and briefly touched a 17-year low near 1,550 per dollar in late June. Since then it has rallied more than 12% over two months, with the dollar-won rate recently trading around 1,363.<\/p>\n
SK Hynix’s July share sale was the largest U.S. offering by a foreign issuer. The company has said it intends to use the proceeds to finance new factories and equipment to meet soaring demand for AI chips.<\/p>\n
Analysts are also watching how shareholder return programs announced by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics will influence the currency. Both chipmakers unveiled unprecedented payout plans that could generate additional demand for won if the companies convert dollar holdings or raise local-currency funding to support distributions.<\/p>\n
“These companies must pay shareholder returns in won, and they can either use won they already hold or sell dollars in other markets and buy won,” said Choi Kyu-ho, an economist at Hanwha Investment Securities. “Because the amounts involved are very large, they may ultimately need to sell more dollars to raise the funds.”<\/p>\n
Whether those payout plans become a durable catalyst for the won remains uncertain. Analysts note it is still unclear whether the two semiconductor leaders will tap existing cash reserves or convert dollar-denominated assets into local currency.<\/p>\n
Separately, GitLab (GTLB) delivered what management described as one of the strongest quarters in company history, with revenue climbing 21% year over year to $286.3 million and net annual recurring revenue accelerating more than 40%.<\/p>\n
The software development platform provider reported non-GAAP operating income of $42.6 million, representing a 15% operating margin, up from $39.6 million a year earlier. Gross bookings hit a record, and dollar-based net retention improved sequentially for the first time since 2024, reaching 117%.<\/p>\n
The quarter’s centerpiece was the launch of Flex, a commercial model that lets customers make a single dollar commitment and allocate it flexibly across seats and consumption-based products. Within six weeks of its introduction, more than 130 customers committed over $20 million, helping push the company’s paid consumption run rate to more than $40 million, up from $15 million at the end of the prior quarter. Management is targeting more than $100 million by fiscal year-end.<\/p>\n
“Flex changes the growth logic \u2014 our growth is no longer tied only to how many seats customers buy, but to how much value they derive from the entire platform,” said Chief Financial Officer Jessica Ross.<\/p>\n
She detailed the accounting implications of the shift: for every $50 million in self-managed renewable customers that convert to Flex, roughly $5 million in revenue recognition shifts from the current fiscal year into future periods. The maximum potential impact for fiscal 2027 is estimated at about $13 million.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Officer Bill Staples framed AI as a durable structural tailwind. “AI dramatically lowers the barrier to building software \u2014 anyone can become a builder,” he said. “The code these builders generate needs storage, governance, and compliance, which is exactly GitLab’s core value.”<\/p>\n
Ultimate tier ARR grew approximately 35% year over year and now represents 59% of total ARR. Eight of the company’s ten largest deals during the quarter involved Ultimate, reflecting rising demand for security, governance, and compliance capabilities in the AI era.<\/p>\n
GitLab raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $1.129 billion to $1.133 billion, implying growth of 18% to 19%. Third-quarter revenue is forecast at $281 million to $283 million, or 15% to 16% year-over-year growth.<\/p>\n
Staples said the company is entering its “second act” from a position of strength \u2014 “a healthy core business, accelerating customer growth, new products gaining traction, and a consumption model designed for a world where humans and agents build software together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea’s foreign exchange authorities purchased roughly $20 billion in U.S. dollars that SK Hynix sold after completing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[845,71455,71453,71454,71456,5861,8797,276,241,275],"class_list":["post-140427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sk-hynix","tag-bank-of-korea","tag-bill-staples","tag-foreign-exchange-stabilization-fund","tag-gitlab","tag-jessica-ross","tag-korean-won","tag-ministry-of-economy-and-finance","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-sk","tag-sk-hynix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}