An employee working at a semiconductor fab (factory) (Image courtesy of SK hynix)
SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Hynix is poised to report the highest quarterly operating profit in its history, surpassing 10 trillion won for the first time and becoming only the second South Korean company — after Samsung Electronics — to reach the milestone.
According to a survey of brokerage forecasts compiled by Yonhap Infomax on October 19, SK Hynix is expected to post third-quarter revenue of 24.47 trillion won ($17.7 billion) and operating profit of 11.33 trillion won ($8.2 billion). The official earnings announcement is scheduled for October 29.
If confirmed, the result would shatter the company’s previous record set in the second quarter — 22.23 trillion won in sales and 9.21 trillion won in operating profit — underscoring its meteoric rise amid a global boom in artificial intelligence.
High-bandwidth memory (HBM) developed by SK Hynix. (Image courtesy of SK Hynix)
AI Boom and HBM Demand Fuel Historic Surge
Analysts attribute SK Hynix’s stellar performance to surging global demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, essential for training large AI models, and rising DRAM prices. “Sales of 12-layer HBM3E — which account for more than half of the company’s total HBM revenue — are expanding rapidly,” said Lee Se-chul, an analyst at Citigroup, who called the current phase a “semiconductor supercycle.”
Another key driver has been the strong performance of SK Hynix’s U.S. subsidiary, Solidigm. “Demand for enterprise SSDs using quad-level cell (QLC) technology for AI data storage has surged, and Solidigm’s revenue and profit are expected to exceed earlier forecasts,” said Chae Min-sook of Korea Investment & Securities.
Market research firm Counterpoint estimated SK Hynix’s global memory market revenue in the third quarter at $17.5 billion, up 13 percent from the previous quarter.
SK Hynix HBM3E 16-Layer Showcased at CES (Image provided by SK Hynix)
A Long-Term Bet on Technology Pays Off
The record results mark a vindication for SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who led the acquisition of the then-struggling Hynix Semiconductor in 2012 and doubled down on investment even during market downturns.
At the time of the acquisition, Hynix was operating at a 220 billion won loss and most of the industry was cutting back on spending. Under Chey’s direction, SK Hynix instead poured resources into research and production expansion, laying the foundation for its current dominance in AI-focused memory technologies.
Chey also insisted on long-term investment in HBM chips despite internal skepticism over their commercial viability. That persistence paid off — SK Hynix became the first company in the world to develop HBM, now one of the most critical components in the AI hardware ecosystem.
“The world’s first HBM breakthrough came just a year after SK took over Hynix,” CEO Kwak Noh-jung said at the Icheon Forum 2025 in August. “This achievement was possible only because SK continued bold investments in the future rather than chasing short-term returns.”
With analysts projecting continued growth in HBM demand and energy-efficient memory solutions, SK Hynix’s remarkable turnaround from a struggling chipmaker to an AI-era powerhouse stands as one of the defining success stories of Korea’s semiconductor industry.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
