SK Hynix Surpasses 100 Trillion Won in Quarterly Sales for First Time… Operating Profit Margin at 80%

[Anchor]

SK Hynix has once again posted record-breaking financial results, surpassing 100 trillion won in third-quarter sales for the first time. Driven by a surge in demand for artificial intelligence semiconductors, the company is also pushing for a shareholder return plan valued at around 100 trillion won this year.

Reporter Choi Seung-hun has the details.

[Reporter]

SK Hynix's sales for the third quarter of this year reached 104.6 trillion won.

This marks the first time that quarterly sales have exceeded 100 trillion won.

This is more than four times the figure from the same period last year, and operating profit surged more than sevenfold to 83.3 trillion won.

With 80 won of operating profit generated out of every 100 won in sales, the operating profit margin also hit an all-time quarterly high.

The stellar performance was driven by High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI and server memory.

Full-scale shipments of the new HBM4, a significant increase in sales of server-use DDR5, and skyrocketing memory prices all contributed to the growth.

However, net profit dropped 58% from the previous quarter to 39.8 trillion won.

This reflected 11.6 trillion won in foreign exchange losses due to a falling exchange rate and 22.9 trillion won in losses from the valuation of investment assets.

SK Hynix projected that memory demand will outpace supply through 2030, fueled by expanding AI investments.

The company announced that it has secured supply volumes equivalent to more than half of its production capacity for 2027 and 2028 through long-term contracts with 14 major clients.

[Interview / Park Jun-deok / Head of DRAM Marketing, SK Hynix: Our DRAM and HBM volumes for the next three years through 2029 are practically sold out.]

In the fourth quarter, HBM4 is projected to surpass HBM3E in both shipment volume and sales.

The company is also pursuing shareholder returns totaling approximately 100 trillion won this year, which includes cash dividends as well as the purchase and retirement of treasury shares.

Buoyed by strong earnings, the shareholder return announcement, and rallies in U.S. semiconductor stocks, semiconductor shares surged.

As of 11:20 AM, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics shares rose 7.9% and 7.8%, respectively.

The KOSPI crossed the 5,900 mark during intraday trading, and a buyside sidecar was triggered.

[Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.