Written by: Jihoon Lee and Hyunjoo Jin

Shares of Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip maker, fell to their lowest level in more than four years on Wednesday amid concerns about the impact of U.S. tariffs under the new Donald Trump administration, analysts said.

The South Korean tech giant has been the worst-performing stock among global chipmakers such as TSMC and Nvidia this year as it lags behind rivals in meeting growing demand for AI chips.

BNK Investment & Securities analyst Lee Min-hee said Trump’s potential tariffs on Chinese imports appear to deal a bigger blow to Samsung, which is more dependent on Chinese customers than local rival SK Hynix.

Hynix is ​​increasing sales of high-end AI server chips to U.S. customers like Nvidia.

Greg Noh, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities, said Trump threatened to impose a 10 percent tariff on imports and a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods, which would reduce demand for electronic products using chips.

Last week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol also expressed concerns that Trump’s threat to impose high tariffs on Chinese imports could lead Chinese rivals to lower export prices and undermine Korean chip companies abroad.

Samsung shares have fallen 34% since the beginning of the year and are on track for their worst annual performance in more than two decades. Shares of SK Hynix are up 32% so far this year, and US chipmaker Nvidia has gained 199%.

Shares of Samsung, South Korea’s most valuable stock, extended their decline for a fourth consecutive session after falling 2.1% to 51,700 won as of 01:26 GMT, the lowest level since June 24, 2020. The KOSPI market fell. 1.5%.

SK Hynix rose as much as 2% after falling for two consecutive sessions.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Ed Davies)