SK Hynix Posts First-Ever Quarterly Revenue of 10 Trillion Won and Operating Profit of 8.3 Trillion Won in Q3, Setting All-Time High Earnings

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SK Hynix recorded its highest quarterly earnings ever, driven by a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors. The company announced on the 28th that it posted consolidated revenue of 104.6155 trillion won and an operating profit of 83.3338 trillion won for the third quarter this year. These figures represent sharp year-on-year increases of 328% and 632%, respectively, significantly exceeding market expectations (revenue of 98.2257 trillion won, operating profit of 76.9640 trillion won) aggregated by FnGuide. The operating profit margin, a key profitability indicator, rose by 3.4 percentage points from the previous quarter to reach 79.7%.

The strong performance was underpinned by expanded sales of high-value-added products such as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and server DRAM. In the DRAM segment, HBM4 shipments began in earnest and sales of server DDR5 increased, while in NAND, supply of enterprise SSDs (eSSD) based on 321-layer TLC technology expanded. The company’s financial structure also improved significantly; cash assets grew to 114.5 trillion won as of the end of the third quarter, while borrowings decreased to 15.8 trillion won, expanding net cash to 98.7 trillion won.

SK Hynix forecasted that starting from the fourth quarter, HBM4 will surpass its current mainstay, HBM3E, in both shipment volume and revenue. Analysts predict that memory supply shortages will continue until 2030 as AI infrastructure investment spreads beyond big tech companies to general enterprises and national levels, coupled with growing demand for "physical AI" such as autonomous driving and robotics. Conversely, considering the rising technical difficulty and the time required to build new facilities, the pace of supply growth is expected to fail to keep up with demand.

In response, SK Hynix plans to maximize production capacity at Cheongju M15X by year-end and shift its business structure toward next-generation products. The company has already signed long-term supply agreements (LTAs) with 14 major customers, including global large-scale cloud service providers (CSPs), securing volumes that account for more than 50% of total production capacity in 2027–2028. Capital expenditure is expected to increase significantly compared to this year next year, driven by the operation of the first-phase fab at the Yongin semiconductor cluster and other factors.

Based on its record-breaking earnings, SK Hynix will also implement an unprecedented shareholder return policy. In line with the principle of returning more than 50% of free cash flow (FCF), the company is pushing for approximately 100 trillion won in shareholder returns this year. The 40 trillion won share buyback announced in August was completed on the 21st of this month and is scheduled to be canceled soon. For the fiscal year 2026, cash dividends will exceed 30 trillion won, while the scale of share buybacks and cancellations will expand to over 60 trillion won.

At today’s board meeting, a third-quarter cash dividend of 14 trillion won and a treasury stock purchase of 20 trillion won were resolved. The third-quarter dividend was set at 20,000 won per share, combining a base dividend of 10,000 won reflecting improved performance with a special dividend of 10,000 won reflecting investment returns from Japan’s Kioxia. Of the additional 20 trillion won in treasury stock purchases, 10 trillion won intended for shareholder returns will be fully canceled, while the remaining 10 trillion won will be used for employee compensation.

SK Hynix stated that it will implement special dividends when large-scale investment returns occur in the future, continue share buybacks every quarter, and consistently share stable performance with its shareholders.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original