Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
SK hynix Q2 profit reaches $41.6 bil., up 557%
An SK hynix advertisement appears on a billboard in Times Square, New York, July 10. Courtesy of SK hynix
By Nam Hyun-woo
SK hynix said Wednesday its second-quarter operating profit soared 557.2 percent from a year earlier to 60.54 trillion won ($41.6 billion).
Revenue for the quarter reached 79.32 trillion won, up 256.8 percent year-on-year. Both revenue and operating profit set new records, surpassing the previous highs of 52.58 trillion won in revenue and 37.6 trillion won in operating profit. Its operating margin reached 76 percent.
However, the results fell short of brokerages' consensus estimates of 83.94 trillion won in revenue and 63.99 trillion won in operating profit.
The company attributed the strong performance to continued demand driven by expanding artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment, with higher prices for high-performance AI server memories lifting earnings. Its first-half revenue exceeded 100 trillion won for the first time.
"Prices for both DRAM and NAND posted sharp increases from the previous quarter," SK hynix said. "We achieved record profitability by expanding sales of high-value-added products, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), AI server DRAM and enterprise solid-state drives."
The company said it is receiving growing supply requests from Big Tech companies expanding AI infrastructure investment. Based on the demand outlook, it is engaging customers on multi-year contracts to secure long-term supply stability and concluded negotiations on long-term agreements with around 10 customers, including key clients.
The company began mass shipments of HBM4 in the second quarter and plans to significantly ramp up production in the second half. It has also completed the sample deliveries of the next-generation HBM4E in the first half, and plans to use an optimized manufacturing process that ensures technological maturity and stable mass production.
The company said its 321-layer NAND products already account for the largest share of its total production, and it plans to expand their share to about 50 percent of its domestic production capacity by the end of the year.
To meet growing demand, SK said it has accelerated the production schedule for its M15X fab while investing to rapidly expand capacity.
It said its mid- to long-term investment plans, including the recently announced P&T7 advanced packaging facility, the M17 NAND production base and the new semiconductor cluster, will be carried out in phases based on customer demand and investment efficiency.