SK hynix plant in Icheon
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) — SK hynix Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter net profit more than quadrupled on rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, including high bandwidth memory (HBM), exceeding market expectations.
The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker said in a regulatory filing that its net income reached 8.1 trillion won (US$5.7 billion) for the January-March period, up from 1.92 trillion won a year earlier.
Its operating income soared 157.8 percent on-year to 7.44 trillion won for the quarter, compared with 2.88 trillion won a year ago. Revenue rose 41.9 percent to 17.63 trillion won.
Both operating profit and sales marked the second-best quarterly results following the record highs in the fourth quarter of last year.
The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 5.48 trillion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
SK hynix attributed the better-than-expected bottom line to strong demand for AI memory, solidifying its status as a world leader in high bandwidth memory (HBM) technology.
“The memory market ramped up faster than expected due to competition to develop AI systems and inventory accumulation demand,” SK hynix said.
(Yonhap)
