SK hynix reports record quarterly operating profit as AI memory demand rises

SK hynix reported record quarterly revenue of 104.6155 trillion won and record operating profit of 83.3338 trillion won for the third quarter of 2026. The memory-chip maker said AI infrastructure demand lifted sales of advanced memory and data-center storage products.

The company’s preliminary results showed an operating margin of 80% on a rounded basis. Revenue rose 32% from the second quarter, while operating profit climbed 38%. Net income was 39.7756 trillion won, equal to a 38% net margin.

Those consolidated K-IFRS figures could still change, SK hynix said, because its quarterly review was not final and the results remained subject to an independent audit.

The company attributed the DRAM performance to higher server DDR5 sales and HBM4 shipments beginning in earnest.

SK hynix also reported expanded sales of enterprise solid-state drives built with its 321-layer triple-level-cell NAND. Other higher-value data-center NAND products continued to grow, the company said.

SK hynix projects that HBM4 will overtake HBM3E in shipment volume and revenue during the fourth quarter of 2026, becoming its mainstream HBM product. That remains a company forecast, not an observed result.

The company also projects that overall memory demand will exceed supply through 2030, citing the technical difficulty of leading-edge manufacturing processes and the long lead times for new production facilities.

SK hynix said it has long-term agreements with 14 major customers covering more than half of its production capacity for 2027 and 2028. The customer and capacity claim was not independently corroborated in the opened sources.

The company outlined a shareholder-return plan of about 100 trillion won for fiscal 2026, including at least 30 trillion won in cash dividends and at least 60 trillion won in share repurchases and cancellations. Those amounts are planned, not completed returns.