The market capitalization of Samsung Electronics has surpassed that of Nokia to rival Intel's.

The Korea Exchange on Monday said Korea's biggest chip maker saw its market capitalization reach US$101 billion on Aug. 25, twice more than the world's top phone maker Nokia ($47.2 billion) and only $5.9 billion less than no. 1 IT giant Intel ($106.9 billion).

Nokia's market valuation was $96.5 billion at the beginning of September last year but plunged by half due to the global financial crisis. Intel's was $126.9 billion in September last year, approximately $20 billion more than today.

But Samsung Electronics' market value surged from $76.1 billion to $101 billion during the same period.

Samsung was not the only Korean company that performed robustly in the past year. The market capitalization of LG Electronics was $17.4 billion, more than that of America's leading cell phone maker Motorola ($17.3billion), a dramatic leap for Korea's second largest chipmaker given its market value was only half Motorola's in September last year.