SK hynix Q1 Earnings Hit Record Highs on Strong HBM, DRAM Demand

SEOUL, April 23 (Yonhap) -- SK hynix Inc. said Thursday its revenue and profits for the first quarter reached record highs, driven by robust demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) and other memory segments. Net profit came to a record 40.34 trillion won (US$27.3 billion) for the January-March period, up 397.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the company's regulatory filing. Its operating income soared 405.5 percent on-year to a record 37.61 trillion won. Sales shot up 198.1 percent to 52.57 trillion won. The latest gains mark the first time that a South Korean chipmaker posted quarterly sales above 50 trillion won, with revenue, operating profit and net profit all reaching record highs. The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 31.95 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. SK hynix attributed the sharp growth to a rise in global prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), coupled with strong demand for high-end products in the AI server industry. "Despite the fact that the first quarter is typically a seasonal downturn, strong demand persisted due to expanded investments in AI infrastructure," SK hynix said in a release. "The company sustained its upward performance trend by increasing sales of high-value-added products, including HBM, high-capacity server DRAM modules and eSSDs," it added. SK hynix said global memory demand is expected to expand across DRAM and NAND flash as AI evolves from large model training to agentic AI, which repeatedly performs real-time inference across various service environments. It also said the spread of memory efficiency technologies will improve the economic viability of AI services, expanding the overall service scale and further driving memory demand. "Favorable pricing conditions will continue for both DRAM and NAND flash," the company said. To meet rising demand, SK hynix said it plans to continue rolling out new products across both DRAM and NAND flash segments. The company also said it will increase investment to expand infrastructure and equipment, focusing on the ramp-up of the new M15X fab in Cheongju, about 110 kilometers south of Seoul, and infrastructure preparation for the Yongin cluster just south of Seoul. "We will secure both a stable supply and robust financial conditions through investment aligned with demand and will strategically expand production bases to proactively respond to long-term demand growth," the company said.