SK Hynix posts record $25.4 billion profit as AI boom drives memory chip prices to new heights

SK Hynix Beats Estimates on AI Chip Sales, Soaring Memory Prices

Favorable memory prices are expected to continue, with SK Hynix increasing its capital spending significantly this year to expand production capacity. SK Hynix Inc. reported a five-fold jump in quarterly profit, underscoring the surging prices of the memory chips that underpin the boom in global artificial intelligence development. Operating profit for the March quarter jumped to 37.61 trillion won ($25.4 billion), a record high that compares with the average estimate by analysts for 35.7 trillion won. Sales nearly tripled to 52.58 trillion won. Favorable memory prices will continue on robust demand and SK Hynix's capital spending would increase significantly this year, it said. The chipmaker is riding an AI spending boom that's reshaping the memory sector and offsetting fears around supply chain disruptions stemming from war in the Middle East. The outperformance may fuel the stance of bullish investors, who argue that the advent of AI is igniting a super-cycle of demand that will help SK Hynix and its rivals break a decades-old cycle of boom and bust. Hyperscalers from Meta Platforms Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI hardware. That's fueling earnings at SK Hynix, which is benefiting from its lead in high-bandwidth memory, critical for training and running AI models alongside Nvidia Corp. accelerators. SK Hynix and its competitors Samsung Electronics Co. and Micron Technology Inc. are also allocating more production capacity to lucrative HBM, spurring shortages and price spikes in conventional memory. That's further boosting revenue for memory makers. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Plus Signed UpPlus Sign UpPlus Sign Up By continuing, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. In response to the demand, Hynix said in January that its capital expenditure in 2026 will rise significantly from 30.2 trillion won in 2025. Last month, it announced a plan to spend the equivalent of $8 billion on cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet lithography chipmaking tools from ASML Holding NV. Larger rival Samsung plans to spend more than 110 trillion won on chip capacity expansion and research this year, devoting a record amount of capital toward an effort to seize the lead in AI semiconductors. Shares of SK Hynix have climbed around 90% this year after more than tripling in 2025, outrunning Samsung. Samsung appears to be pulling ahead in the next-generation HBM4 arena, however. It was first to commercially ship HBM4 chips and it showcasedBloomberg Terminal its cutting-edge HBM4E at Nvidia's GTC event. The memory makers' stocks are still trading at a fraction of the valuation multiples of other top AI chip names including Nvidia and leading global foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., however. Skeptics say the lower valuation is merited due to the lumpy nature of memory earnings. For now, the exponential rise in prices over past months is tough to ignore. The benchmark contract price for 8 gigabits of DDR4 PC memory has risen for 11 consecutive months, hitting roughly $13 last month, according to market tracker DRAMeXchange. The steady uptrend has boosted margins across SK Hynix's core business. Higher NAND flash prices also contributed. And the average selling price of DRAM climbed 60.8% in the first quarter from the previous quarter, while that of NAND rose 55.3%, according to estimates by Mirae Asset Securities Co. Demand for enterprise solid-state drives has also surged alongside data center investment. While pledging to expand capacity, SK Chairman Chey Tae-won cautioned in February that losses remain a possibility in the future in an era of rapid technological shifts. He also highlighted mounting infrastructure challenges. He said SK Group is now exploring building power plants alongside AI data centers, as failure to meet energy demand could be "disastrous." Some investors also point to the rise of Chinese memory chipmakers as a potential threat to the dominant players. "We are, in a way, in a new paradigm for memory," Jorry Noeddekaer, London-based head of global emerging markets and Asia at Polar Capital, said before the results. But "this idea that you will never ever see cyclicality in memory -- we are not buying that."

Nvidia supplier SK Hynix hails 'structural shift' after another record quarter

SK Hynix posted another record quarter with a fivefold jump in earnings as the world's second-largest memory chipmaker stressed a "structural shift" in the sector with booming AI demand continuing to strain chip supply. The South Korean company said on Thursday that operating profit rose to Won37.6tn ($25.4bn) in the first three months of this year, beating analyst estimates of Won35.7tn. Revenue for the key supplier to semiconductor titan Nvidia nearly tripled to Won52.6tn from a year earlier. SK Hynix expected the upcycle to last longer than in the past as customers prioritised procurement over pricing amid the supply crunch, while capacity constraints limited supply expansion. "The current cycle seems different from the past as memory price upswings are driven by structural changes rather than temporary demand and supply," said Joon Deok Park, head of DRam marketing at SK Hynix. The South Korean company plans to significantly increase its capital spending this year in response to long-term demand growth as Big Tech companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI hardware. Last month, SK Hynix announced a plan to spend about $8bn on extreme ultraviolet lithography machines from ASML, while Samsung was set to spend a record Won110tn on chip capacity expansion and research this year to strengthen its competitiveness in AI chips. SK Hynix said customer demand for high-bandwidth chips used in AI processors over the next three years far exceeded its production capacity. A global build-out of data centres to support AI models has lifted prices of both high-bandwidth and conventional memory chips as manufacturers prioritise higher-margin AI products. SK Hynix leads the high-bandwidth memory market with a 57 per cent share as of the end of last year, followed by Samsung and Micron Technology, according to Counterpoint Research. Demand for AI server chips remains strong, increasingly driven by inference workloads, where applications such as chatbots generate responses. SK Hynix also dismissed concerns that the spread of memory-efficiency technologies such as Google's TurboQuant might dent chip demand, saying they would further expand memory demand by enhancing the economic viability of AI services. "The advancement of the memory optimisation technology will actually serve as a catalyst for driving memory demand further by expanding the AI ecosystem," Park said. His remarks have strengthened investor confidence that the sector -- prone to boom-and-bust cycles -- may be entering a more sustained upcycle as customers increasingly lock in long-term contracts to secure supply. "We are seeing a clear structural change," said Kwon Seok-joon, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. "Where the market was once driven by cyclical commodity chips, demand for AI-specialised memory chips is getting bigger now, extending the upcycle. Based on current long-term contracts, it could last through next year and possibly to 2028." Citi analysts expected AI inference demand to support memory pricing this year, particularly for server DRam, but warned that growth could slow if the Iran conflict dragged on. Chip production has largely avoided disruption, although tensions in the Middle East have raised energy costs for data centres. SK Hynix said the short-to-long-term impact of the geopolitical risks on material supply would be limited, citing enough inventories and diversified sourcing. SK Hynix shares have surged about 90 per cent this year and are up almost 600 per cent over the past 12 months. Samsung shares have also gained more than 80 per cent this year, with the company's 2026 earnings forecast to increase four to fivefold.

Nvidia supplier SK Hynix's Q1 profit rises five-fold to a record high on AI boom

SEOUL, April 23 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab posted a more than five-fold jump in first-quarter operating profit to a record high on Thursday, as the artificial intelligence boom drove strong demand for both advanced and conventional memory chip products. The strong results underscore continued momentum in the global memory chip market, as demand from Big Tech companies to build AI data centres has constrained chip supplies and pushed up prices of both high-end and commodity memory chips. "As AI evolves from large model training to the stage of agentic AI, which repeatedly performs real-time inference across various service ⁠environments, the foundation for memory demand is expanding across both DRAM and NAND flash," SK Hynix said in a statement. Contract prices for certain DRAM chips jumped nearly 83% in the first quarter from the previous quarter, while prices for some NAND products soared around 160%, according to data from market tracker TrendForce. It expects memory chip prices to rise further in the current quarter, signaling another quarter of robust earnings growth, as AI firms race to secure advanced chips needed for their infrastructure rollouts. Some analysts expect the pace of price increases to ease after the second quarter, but constrained supply will continue until new production capacity comes online, which can take more than a year after construction begins. SK Hynix said it expects a favourable pricing environment to continue "for the time being," as AI-driven demand offsets softer chip demand from PC and smartphone makers. Chey Tae-won, chairman of its parent group SK ⁠Group, said last month that the global chip wafer shortage is likely to persist until 2030, as demand driven by AI continues to outpace supply. SK Hynix said earlier it is accelerating capacity expansion, including bringing forward the opening of a new memory chip plant in South Korea to meet surging demand. The memory chip maker said this year's investment will rise significantly from last year's 30.2 trillion won, with focus on building infrastructure at the Yongin Cluster, ramping up the M15X fab, and securing ⁠key equipment such as EUVs. In March, SK Hynix said it would purchase 11.95 trillion won worth of EUV lithography tools from ASML (ASML.AS), opens new tab by 2027. The company added that it is actively reviewing additional shareholder return measures, including dividends, share buybacks and cancellations, and aims to finalise implementation plans within the year. Shares in SK Hynix have jumped ⁠nearly 90% so far this year, with its market value climbing to around $590 billion, surpassing chip equipment maker ASML's $570 billion, Europe's most valuable company. The Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab supplier reported a 37.6 trillion won ($25.42 billion) operating profit for the January-March period, up from 7.4 trillion won a year earlier. That was in line with ⁠a 37.9 trillion won forecast by LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward analysts who are more consistently accurate. Quarterly revenue rose 198% to 52.6 trillion won. Shares of SK Hynix were trading up 2.1% in morning trade, compared with the benchmark KOSPI's (.KS11), opens new tab 1.2% rise. ($1 = 1,478.8600 won) Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

SK Hynix posts record first-quarter profit, in line with estimates as memory prices climb

A SK Hynix flag (R) and a South Korean national flag (L) flutter outside the company's Bundang office in Seongnam on Jan. 26, 2024. South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix posted yet another quarter of record profit and revenue on Thursday, as prices for its products continue to surge amid strong AI demand. Here are SK Hynix's first-quarter results versus LSEG smart estimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate: Revenue surpassed 50 trillion won for the first time on a quarterly basis in the March quarter, while operating profit nearly doubled from the previous quarter. SK Hynix makes memory chips used to store data, which are found in everything from servers to smartphones and laptops. The company has benefited from a boom in artificial intelligence demand as the world's leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, used in AI datacenters. "SK hynix noted that despite the fact that first quarter is typically a seasonal downturn, strong demand persisted due to expanded investments in AI infrastructure," SK Hynix said in its earnings release. HBM falls into the broader category of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM -- a type of semiconductor memory used to store data and program code that can be found in PCs, workstations and servers. SK Hynix had gained an edge over rivals like Micron and Samsung in the DRAM market, thanks to its early lead in HBM and its role as a key supplier to the world's leading AI processor maker Nvidia. However, Samsung reclaimed the top spot in DRAM revenue in the last three months of the year, according to data from Counterpoint Research. Meanwhile, SK Hynix continued to dominate in HBM with a 57% market share. Counterpoint added that the DRAM market has recorded 30% quarter-over-quarter growth for two consecutive quarters due to rising memory prices. Surging demand for HBM has triggered a broader memory shortage in recent quarters, pushing up memory prices and boosting the profits for memory chipmakers. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won reportedly stated in March 2026 that the global chip wafer shortage is likely to persist until 2030, as demand for HBM continues to outpace supply and strain manufacturing capacity. He added that building additional wafer supply could take at least four to five years, with a projected shortfall exceeding 20%.

Chip giant SK hynix posts record quarterly profit on AI boom

Seoul (AFP) - Chip giant SK hynix logged a record quarterly net profit on Thursday thanks to the artificial intelligence boom, shrugging off concerns that the Middle East war could drag on the semiconductor industry. Huge investments from governments and major technology companies are driving frenzied demand for the hardware that powers generative AI tools. The South Korean firm posted net profit of 40.3 trillion won ($27.2 billion) in the first quarter, up nearly 400 percent year-on-year. The figure smashed estimates of 29.4 trillion won in a Bloomberg analyst survey. Revenue surpassed 50 trillion won for the first time in a single quarter, while operating profit nearly doubled compared to the previous three-month period. "Despite the fact that first quarter is typically a seasonal downturn, strong demand persisted due to expanded investments in AI infrastructure," SK hynix said. "As AI evolves from large model training to the stage of agentic AI, which repeatedly performs real-time inference across various service environments, the foundation for memory demand is expanding." The AI boom has pushed up prices and shipments of conventional memory semiconductors, while demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, used in AI servers, has soared. That has caused SK hynix shares to skyrocket by around 600 percent over the past year -- helping push Seoul's benchmark Kospi stock index to record highs. 'Strong momentum' Along with rival Samsung Electronics, SK hynix is supplying HBM to US industry titan Nvidia for its forthcoming cutting-edge "Vera Rubin" AI platform, expected to further boost the technology's capabilities. While investors periodically get the jitters over how long the AI boom will last, analysts have said they do not expect the bubble to burst any time soon. "We expect earnings momentum to remain strong" this year for SK hynix, Kim Young-gun at Mirae Asset Securities said in a note this month. Reports suggest that memory chip suppliers like SK hynix are entering into long-term supply agreements of three years or more with big tech customers, he wrote. "In some cases, customers are even seeking options to extend contract durations beyond the initial term, underscoring their emphasis on supply stability." The rush to build AI data centres has sent orders soaring for HBM, which help the systems process vast amounts of data. But as chipmakers prioritise the lucrative AI industry, they are producing fewer of the more workaday chips used in everyday consumer electronics like phones and laptops, pushing up device prices. "Excess demand is expected to persist through the end of the year" for so-called DRAM and NAND memory chips, said a Shinhan Securities report from early April. That allows "suppliers to maintain the upper hand in pricing power", it said, predicting strong annual results for SK hynix in 2026. SK hynix said on Thursday that it "plans to continue rolling out new products across both DRAM and NAND flash to address the diversifying memory demand". It is increasing its chipmaking capacity and plans to spend 19 trillion won to build a new factory in South Korea's Cheongju.

Nvidia-Supplier SK Hynix Smashes Records with $35 Billion Quarter As AI Demand Defies Seasonality

On Thursday, SK Hynix reported blowout first-quarter results, saying demand tied to artificial intelligence helped push quarterly revenue past KRW 50 trillion ($33.7 billion) for the first time. The memory maker also laid out plans for new DRAM and NAND products to dominate the memory market. SK Hynix Q1 Results Nvidia-supplier SK Hynix recorded KRW 52.58 trillion ($35.57 billion) in revenue, up 60% from the fourth quarter and 198% from the year-ago quarter. This is the first time the company has surpassed 50 trillion won in quarterly revenue. Operating profit reached a record high of KRW 37.6 trillion ($25.4 billion) with an operating margin of 72%. Operating profit jumped fivefold from the year-ago quarter and has nearly doubled from the fourth quarter of 2025, clearly demonstrating improving profitability. AI Demand Fuels Unprecedented Growth Management attributed the surge to customers continuing to fund AI infrastructure even as the first quarter is typically slower for the industry. SK Hynix said it sold more high-end products, pointing to HBM, larger server DRAM modules, and enterprise SSDs. SK Hynix Plans To Dominate Memory Market Looking ahead, the South Korean memory giant said it expects memory demand to expand across DRAM and NAND as AI shifts from model training toward real-time inference across services. The company said it expects pricing to stay supportive in both DRAM and NAND flash. It also pointed to memory-efficiency technologies as a potential catalyst that could make AI services cheaper to run and therefore larger in scale. On product plans, the company said it will keep introducing new offerings in DRAM and NAND flash as demand becomes more varied. In DRAM, the memory maker said it will ramp LPDDR6 built on its 1cnm process, and highlighted that a 192GB SOCAMM will enter mass production in April. On NAND, the company pointed to a 321-layer QLC cSSD product and an eSSD lineup spanning high-performance TLC and high-capacity QLC. Strategic Talent Acquisition Amid Memory Crunch The robust results align with the company's recent initiatives to accelerate its push in AI chips through hiring, capacity expansion, and strategic investments. The company has opened applications for new production roles to meet the growing demand for advanced memory solutions driven by AI. This push for talent comes as the broader semiconductor industry grapples with a significant memory crunch, which has been projected to persist through 2027. Strategic IPO Moves Amid Fierce Competition Price Action: At the time of writing, SK Hynix stock was seen trading nearly 2% lower at KRW 1,198,000 ($808.53) in Seoul. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by a Benzinga editor. Photo Courtesy: JHVEPhoto on Shutterstock.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

SK hynix's Q1 operating margin breaks above 70%, higher than Nvidia, TSMC - The Korea Times

SK hynix on Thursday posted an operating profit of 37.61 trillion won ($25.42 billion) for the first quarter, nearly doubling its previous record set just three months earlier. This helped the chipmaker's operating margin surpass 70 percent, far outpacing those of TSMC and Nvidia. In its regulatory filing, the chipmaker said its sales stood at 52.58 trillion won and operating profit hit 37.61 trillion won during the January-March period, up respectively 198.1 percent and 405.5 percent from a year earlier. The company's operating margin stood at 72 percent, surpassing the 58 percent posted by Taiwan's TSMC in the first quarter and 65 percent recorded by Nvidia in the fourth quarter of last year. The two companies are widely considered the industry benchmark for profitability. This marks a new quarterly earnings record for SK hynix, surpassing its previous all-time high set in the fourth quarter of last year -- 32.83 trillion won in sales and 19.17 trillion won in operating profit. "A seasonal slowdown is typically seen in the first quarter, but demand remained strong amid expanding investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure," the company said. "Expanded sales of high value-added products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), high-capacity server DRAM modules and enterprise solid state drives (eSSDs) drove earnings growth." The earnings record came amid an exponential expansion in AI infrastructure worldwide, which has fueled surging demand for AI-specific memory chips such as HBM. As memory chip makers concentrated production capacity on HBM, supply bottlenecks also emerged in conventional DRAM and even NAND flash products used for storage. The company said demand has broadened beyond HBM into conventional DRAM and NAND more recently, as AI evolves from large-model training toward agentic AI, which requires repeated real-time inference across a wider range of service environments. During its earnings call, the company dismissed concerns, sparked by recent declines in spot DRAM prices, that the current global memory chip upcycle may be nearing its peak. "The spot market accounts for only a very small portion of the overall DRAM market," the company said. "The types and volumes of products traded there also differ significantly from our business. It is difficult to view changes in the spot market as reflective of overall market conditions under the current environment ... As the supply-demand imbalance is likely to persist, the memory price upcycle is expected to last longer." The company stressed that the imbalance stems from structural changes in the market, rather than a temporary situation. While demand is rising, the industry's supply capacity cannot be expanded quickly due to weakened investment during the previous downturn. To address the situation, SK hynix said customers are increasingly seeking long-term deals, and the company is "comprehensively reviewing various approaches and structural alternatives different from conventional long-term agreements." Regarding its HBM business, the company said it plans to supply samples of next-generation HBM4E to major clients in the second half of this year, with the goal of beginning mass production in 2027. It said the product will be based on its latest 1c process, adding that the company's 1c technology has already "reached a mature stage in terms of yield." The 1c process is a sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class node, the latest process technology for fabricating memory chips. While rival Samsung Electronics has used the 1c process for its HBM4, SK hynix has used the previous 1b process for its HBM4 for manufacturing stability. This had fueled speculation that Samsung Electronics could challenge SK hynix's HBM dominance with HBM4, especially after Samsung in February publicly promoted itself as the world's first company to mass-produce and ship HBM4. SK hynix is also ramping up its HBM4 production and shipment, but competition is intensifying as Samsung and Micron have also entered Nvidia's HBM supply chain. During the earnings call, analysts questioned SK hynix's status on HBM4, but the company said it is "preparing to ramp up products that meet customers' required performance levels in line with each customer's mass production schedule." SK hynix said its capital expenditure this year would rise sharply from a year earlier, as it will ramp up its M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, accelerate construction of its chip cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and secure key equipment such as extreme ultraviolet lithography tools.

SK hynix Q1 operating margin breaks above 70%, higher than Nvidia, TSMC - The Korea Times

SK hynix on Thursday posted an operating profit of 37.61 trillion won ($25.42 billion) for the first quarter, nearly doubling the previous record set just three months earlier. This helped the chipmaker's operating margin to surpass 70 percent, far outpacing that of TSMC and Nvidia. In its regulatory filing, the chipmaker said its sales and operating profit stood at 52.58 trillion won and 37.61 trillion won during the January-March period, respectively, up 198.1 percent and 405.5 percent from a year earlier. The company's operating margin stood at 72 percent, surpassing the 58 percent posted by Taiwan's TSMC in the first quarter and 65 percent recorded by Nvidia in the fourth quarter of last year. The two companies are widely considered the industry benchmark for profitability. This marks a new quarterly earnings record for SK hynix, surpassing its previous all-time high set in the fourth quarter of last year -- 32.83 trillion won in sales and 19.17 trillion won in operating profit. "A seasonal slowdown is typically seen in the first quarter, but demand remained strong amid expanding investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure," the company said. "Expanded sales of high-value-added products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), high-capacity server DRAM modules and enterprise solid state drives (eSSDs) drove earnings growth." The earnings record came amid an exponential expansion in AI infrastructure worldwide, which has fueled surging demand for AI-specific memory chips such as HBM. As memory makers concentrated production capacity on HBM, supply bottlenecks also emerged in conventional DRAM and even NAND flash products used for storage. The company said demand has broadened beyond HBM into conventional DRAM and NAND more recently, as AI evolves from large-model training toward agentic AI, which requires repeated real-time inference across a wider range of service environments. During its earnings call, the company dismissed concerns sparked by recent declines in spot DRAM prices, that the current global memory chip upcycle may be nearing its peak. "The spot market accounts for only a very small portion of the overall DRAM market," the company said. "The types and volumes of products traded there also differ significantly from our business. It is difficult to view changes in the spot market as reflective of overall market conditions under the current environment ... As the supply-demand imbalance is likely to persist, the memory price upcycle is expected to last longer." The company stressed that the imbalance stems from structural changes in the market, rather than a temporary situation. While demand is rising, the industry's supply capacity cannot be expanded quickly due to weakened investment during the previous downturn. To address such situation, SK hynix said that customers are increasingly entering long-term agreements, and the company is "comprehensively reviewing various approaches and structural alternatives different from conventional long-term agreements." Regarding its HBM business, the company said it plans to supply samples of next-generation HBM4E to major clients in the second half of this year, with the goal of beginning mass production in 2027. It said the product will be based on its latest 1c process, adding that the company's 1c technology has already "reached a mature stage in terms of yield." The 1c process is a sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class node, the latest process technology for fabricating memory chips. While rival Samsung Electronics has used the 1c process for its HBM4, SK hynix has used the previous 1b process for its HBM4 for manufacturing stability. This had fueled speculations that Samsung Electronics could challenge SK hynix's HBM dominance with HBM4, especially after Samsung publicly promoted itself as the world's first company to mass produce and ship HBM4 in February. SK hynix is also ramping up its HBM4 production and shipment, but competition is intensifying as Samsung and Micron have also entered Nvidia's HBM supply chain. During the earnings call, analysts questioned the company's status on HBM4, but the company said it is "preparing to ramp up products that meet customers' required performance levels in line with each customer's mass production schedule." SK hynix said its capital expenditure this year would rise sharply from a year earlier, as it will ramp up its M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, accelerate construction of its chip cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and secure key equipment such as extreme ultraviolet lithography tools.

SK Hynix Q1 profit surges over 400%, beats expectations on stellar AI demand By Investing.com

Investing.com-- SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660) clocked an over five-fold increase in its first-quarter operating profit on Thursday, beating market expectations as the South Korean memory chip maker benefited greatly from increasing artificial intelligence demand. SK Hynix's operating profit jumped 405% year-on-year to a record high of 37.61 trillion won ($25.42 billion) in the three months to March 31, the company said in a statement. Revenue surged nearly 200% to 52.58 trillion won. Get more breaking news on the top AI firms by subscribing to InvestingPro The company- which is among the largest memory chip makers in the world- said it continued to benefit from outsized AI demand for memory, as more global companies built out infrastructure to power the technology. Memory chip prices rose sharply over the past two quarters as outsized AI demand sparked a supply shortage in the sector. High-bandwidth memory was a key driver of this trend, with SK Hynix and its peers signaling that they will shift production towards more HBM products to meet AI-fueled demand. The company is a key supplier to NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and said on Thursday that it expects memory prices to keep rising in the coming quarters.

SK Hynix Earnings Top Estimates as AI Boom Lifts Memory Prices -- Update

Nvidia supplier SK Hynix reported a fivefold jump in quarterly net profit on surging demand for advanced memory chips, indicating that the global artificial-intelligence buildout remains intact despite risks posed by the Middle East conflict. The world's second-largest memory chip maker, a key beneficiary of the AI boom, continues to ramp up investment to boost production capacity. At the same time, customers are scrambling to secure available supplies of cutting-edge semiconductors for AI data centers, smartphones and other devices. Memory chips act like fuel lines for computing engines. As AI processors from Nvidia and others grow more powerful, they require more memory, including both conventional chips and advanced high-bandwidth memory. SK Hynix Chief Financial Officer Kim Woo-hyun said on a call after the company's first-quarter earnings that chip demand will likely continue to outpace supply over the next three years, especially for HBM products. "Given robust demand, we expect 2026 investment scale to increase significantly compared with last year," Kim said. Executives said the company is well-positioned to manage shipping disruptions due to the war in the Middle East, a key supplier of helium, tungsten and other critical chip-making materials. They expect only a limited impact from the geopolitical risks. Net profit was a record 40.346 trillion won, equivalent to $27.28 billion, for the three months ended March, up 398% from the year-earlier figure and well above street views. Analysts had expected 28.109 trillion won, according to a FactSet-compiled consensus forecast. Revenue also rose to a record, tripling to 52.576 trillion won. That resulted in a record operating profit of 37.610 trillion won. The company said its operating profit margin reached 72% in the quarter, a new high, while its net cash position stood at 35 trillion won. Increased sales of high-end products such as HBMs, data server memory modules and enterprise solid-state drives drove the quarterly earnings as strong chip demand persisted, it said. Shares in the company have surged nearly 90% this year, reflecting investors' optimism about its growth outlook. The stock briefly hit a new all-time high Thursday before reversing course to trade about 2% lower. Most analysts expect the company to stay on track for record annual earnings in 2026. SK Hynix earlier this week said it will invest an additional 19 trillion won to build a new advanced chip-packaging plant in Cheongju, South Korea, in addition to U.S. chip-packaging facilities already under construction in Indiana. The investment aims to meet rising global demand for AI memory, it said in a regulatory filing. The company is also building a massive semiconductor manufacturing hub in Yongin, south of Seoul, with an estimated investment of 600 trillion won. In February, it announced an additional 22 trillion won investment for the first of four chip-fabrication plants at the site, bringing its initial investment commitment there to 31 trillion won. SK Hynix last month unveiled a plan to purchase about $8 billion in extreme ultraviolet equipment--advanced lithography machines used to print tiny circuit patterns on silicon wafers--from Dutch chip-making equipment giant ASML by the end of 2027 to support mass production of next-generation chips. The company, which supplies high-bandwidth memory--a critical component of AI accelerators and applications--to Nvidia, is seeking a U.S. listing this year to raise funds. The potential U.S. listing could attract more global investors to help fund its ambitious investment plans. The investment and fundraising plans illustrate SK Hynix's efforts to maintain its lead in the increasingly competitive HBM and broader AI chip market. SK Hynix has led the HBM market by developing and supplying HBM3 and HBM3E products to Nvidia ahead of rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology. In February, Samsung claimed to have beaten SK Hynix to become the world's first to mass produce more advanced HBM4, with plans to provide upgraded HBM4E samples later in the year. SK Hynix on Thursday said it plans to send HBM4E samples to customers in the second half of 2026, with commercial supply set to begin in 2027.