Samsung Electronics shipped the first samples of its 7th-generation HBM (high-bandwidth memory) — the next-gen chip standard that will sit inside AI accelerators like Nvidia's GPUs. This is meaningful because Samsung had lost the previous round (HBM3E) to SK Hynix and was effectively shut out of Nvidia's qualified supplier list for a while. Being first to sample on the next generation flips that script. On the market side, the news drove Samsung's combined market cap (common + preferred shares) past ₩2,000 trillion for the first time. Samsung's preferred stock crossed ₩200,000, overtaking SK Square to become the 3rd-largest stock on the KOSPI by market cap. The KOSPI itself closed at 8,476 (+3.55%), notching another all-time high just two days after first breaking 8,200. For context, the index sat around 2,500-2,600 in late 2024 — it has roughly tripled in about 18 months on the back of the AI/semiconductor supercycle.…