SK Hynix posts record Q2 profit of $52 billion on AI chip demand

SK Hynix achieved its highest-ever quarterly operating profit in the second quarter, driven by soaring demand for high-performance memory chips essential for the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The company announced an operating profit of 60.54 trillion won (approximately $52 billion USD) on revenue of 79.31 trillion won (approximately $68 billion USD) for the April-June period.

This represents a dramatic increase compared to the previous year, with operating profit surging 557% from 9.21 trillion won in the same period last year. The operating profit margin reached an impressive 76%, up 4 percentage points from the previous quarter. Cumulatively, SK Hynix's first-half revenue surpassed 100 trillion won for the first time, reaching 131.89 trillion won, with accumulated operating profit at 98.15 trillion won.

“

DRAM and NAND both recorded significant price increases compared to the previous quarter. We generated the best profitability by increasing sales centered on high-value products such as HBM, AI server DRAM, and eSSD.

However, the company's performance slightly missed market expectations, which had predicted an operating profit of around 64.69 trillion won. SK Hynix attributed its strong performance to increased memory demand fueled by AI infrastructure investments and a focus on selling high-value products. Sales of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), AI server DRAM, and enterprise Solid State Drives (eSSD) saw significant growth amid rising prices for DRAM and NAND flash memory.

SK Hynix is also accelerating its production of next-generation products. The company began shipping its sixth-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4) in the second quarter and plans to significantly increase production in the latter half of the year. SK Hynix highlighted HBM4's differentiated technological competitiveness, achieving industry-leading power efficiency and cost-effectiveness while meeting customer-required operating speeds. The company is also speeding up the transition to advanced processes for its NAND flash memory, aiming to increase the proportion of 321-layer NAND products to about 50% of its domestic production capacity by year-end.

“

HBM4 achieves differentiated technological competitiveness by realizing the operating speeds required by customers while achieving industry-leading power efficiency and cost competitiveness.