SEOUL, January 28 (AJP) -SK hynix, leveraging its dominant lead in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) powering hyperscalers and AI accelerators, delivered its strongest-yet quarterly and annual results and expects further gains this year as global memory revenue approaches $1 trillion.
According to a regulatory filing Tuesday, operating income for the quarter ended December surged to 19.17 trillion won ($13.5 billion), up 68 percent from the previous quarter and 137 percent from a year earlier, marking the company’s best quarterly performance on record.
Quarterly revenue climbed to a historic high of 32.83 trillion won.
The results comfortably beat market expectations. A FnGuide consensus had projected operating profit of 16.4 trillion won on sales of 30.83 trillion won. SK hynix shares closed 5.13 percent higher at 841,000 won, although the earnings were released after market close and earlier than scheduled Thursday, coinciding with Samsung Electronics’ earnings call.
For the full year, operating profit more than doubled to 47.2 trillion won from 23.47 trillion won in 2024, surpassing Samsung Electronics’ preliminary consolidated operating profit of 43.5 trillion won for 2025. Annual revenue jumped 47 percent year on year to 97.15 trillion won.
An operating margin of 49 percent underscored the pricing power of the pure-play chipmaker, meaning nearly half of every won in chip sales translated into operating profit.
“Our results demonstrate the outcome of strategic execution that secured both profitability and growth by reinforcing technology leadership and expanding the share of premium products,” SK hynix said in a statement, adding that 2025 marked “a year in which the company once again proved its world-class technological competitiveness.”
SK hynix has been enjoying a clear heyday, overtaking long-time industry leader Samsung Electronics in global memory market share in the first half of the year, largely on the back of its leadership in HBM — widely described as the core memory architecture behind Nvidia’s AI accelerators.
Despite market speculation over Samsung Electronics’ rapid progress in sixth-generation HBM4, SK hynix is widely believed to have secured nearly 70 percent of supply allocations for Nvidia’s next-generation Rubin platform, scheduled for release this year.
Counterpoint Research estimates SK hynix will command around 54 percent of global HBM4 sales this year, compared with 28 percent for Samsung Electronics and 18 percent for Micron. In HBM3, the company accounted for 62 percent of shipments as of June 2025 and 57 percent of revenue as of September.
Goldman Sachs expects SK hynix to maintain a comfortable lead in HBM3 through at least 2026, while UBS forecasts the company will capture around 70 percent of the next AI-standard memory market, HBM4.
Bank of America, meanwhile, recently described 2026 as a “supercycle comparable to the memory boom of the 1990s,” projecting year-on-year growth of 51 percent in DRAM sales and 45 percent in NAND, with SK hynix positioned as the primary beneficiary of the industry-wide upswing.
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