SK Hynix Posts 398% Surge in Q1 Profit as Revenue Breaches 50-Trillion-Won Mark
SK hynix's (KRX:000660) attributable profit surged 398% to 40.3 trillion won in the first quarter from 8.107 trillion won in the year-ago period, according to a Thursday filing with the Korea Exchange.The chipmaker's revenue soared 198% to 52.6 trillion won from 17.6 trillion won in the prior-year period.The world's third-largest chipmaker by sales saw its top line breach the 50-trillion-won mark for the first time on a quarterly basis, it said in a Thursday press release.Operating profit grew 405% to a record-high 37.6 trillion won from 7.441 trillion won in the prior-year period.The chip manufacturer's operating margin widened to 72% during the period from 42% a year earlier.Strong demand persisted during the first quarter of 2026 due to expanded artificial intelligence infrastructure investments, the company said in its news release.SK Hynix also attributed growth in the quarter to higher sales of its high-bandwidth memory, high-capacity server dynamic random access memory (DRAM) modules, and enterprise solid state drives (eSSDs).Cash and cash equivalents grew by 19.4 trillion won to 54.3 trillion won, while interest-bearing debt slipped by 2.9 trillion won quarter-on-quarter to 19.3 trillion won.SK Hynix plans to roll out new products in the DRAM and NAND flash segments to address diversifying memory demand, it said."SK hynix also predicted that the spread of memory efficiency technologies will enhance the economic viability of AI services, leading to an expansion of the overall service scale and further drive memory demand," the company said in its earnings release.The chipmaker plans to expand its capital expenditure "significantly" in 2026, and while it could create "too much" future production, the company could add little manufacturing capacity until the middle of 2027, Barron's said Thursday.