TLDR
- SK Hynix (SKHY) is up about 8% pre-market at $156.55, after closing Tuesday at $145.36.
- September quarter operating profit hit 83.3 trillion won, up from 11.4 trillion won a year earlier.
- Profit and revenue (104.6 trillion won) both beat analyst estimates.
- The company announced a 100 trillion won shareholder return program for 2026.
- SK Hynix expects memory supply shortages to last through 2030.
SK Hynix (SKHY) stock is pointing higher on Wednesday after a seven-fold jump in quarterly profit. It traded at $156.55 in pre-market, up 8% from Tuesday’s close of $145.36.
In Seoul, the stock (000660) rose about 11%. The results landed Wednesday morning local time.
Operating profit came in at 83.3 trillion won for the September quarter. A year ago, it was 11.4 trillion won.
Analysts were looking for less. Bloomberg’s average estimate was 77.5 trillion won, and the LSEG SmartEstimate was 76.7 trillion won.
Revenue rose to 104.6 trillion won. The average estimate was 99 trillion won.
Memory prices do the heavy lifting
Reuters called the profit a record for the company. It put the figure at about $62.8 billion.
SK Hynix supplies high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to Nvidia (NVDA), which gained about 1% on Tuesday. AI demand keeps pushing memory prices higher.
MS Hwang of Counterpoint Research said the jump came mostly from price hikes in conventional DRAM and NAND. HBM prices are rising too.
Tight supply is keeping operating margins at historically high levels. The company said it expects memory shortages to last through 2030.
Like Samsung Electronics and Micron, SK Hynix has moved production toward HBM. That has squeezed supply of conventional chips.
Macquarie says memory is now about a third of AI data center costs. It expects HBM prices to more than double in 2027.
Payout plan and Solidigm
SK Hynix also announced an extra shareholder return program for 2026. It is worth 100 trillion won, or about $75 billion.
Hwang said quarterly earnings have not peaked yet. He expects them to keep rising through at least 2027.
The payout follows a decision to drop a possible US listing of the Solidigm unit. Shareholder opposition and regulatory scrutiny were behind that call.
Investors had been asking whether the AI build-out is still paying off, with data center projects hitting financing and construction hurdles. Wednesday’s numbers gave them something concrete to chew on.
SK Hynix has prioritized long-term contracts with customers including Nvidia. Solidigm is in talks with the US Commerce Department on a $45 billion chip plant on American soil, Bloomberg News reported.
Get 3 Free Stock Ebooks
Discover top-performing stocks in AI, Crypto, and Technology with expert analysis.
- Top 10 AI Stocks - Leading AI companies
- Top 10 Crypto Stocks - Blockchain leaders
- Top 10 Tech Stocks - Tech giants
