SK hynix posts record quarterly operating profit of 60.5 trillion won, nears 100 trillion won in first-half sales (roundup)

[Financial News]  Backed by a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) memory, SK hynix once again shattered its all-time quarterly record in the second quarter of this year. Strong sales of high-value products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers and enterprise solid-state drives (eSSD), along with rising memory prices, drove profitability sharply higher. First-half cumulative sales also topped 100 trillion won for the first time ever. The company is also expanding negotiations on long-term supply agreements (LTA) with customers to improve medium- to long-term supply stability and extend the memory supercycle.■ Continued demand strength on AI infrastructure investmentSK hynix said on the 29th that on a consolidated basis it posted second-quarter sales of 79.3187 trillion won and operating profit of 60.5426 trillion won. Sales and operating profit rose 257% and 557%, respectively, from a year earlier. The operating margin reached 76%. The latest results set a new quarterly record, following the first quarter. First-half sales exceeded 100 trillion won for the first time, while cumulative operating profit came to 98.1529 trillion won, nearing the 100 trillion won mark.
The company said the results were driven by continued demand strength from expanding AI infrastructure investment, as well as higher sales of premium products including HBM, AI server DRAM, and eSSD.
The strong earnings also improved the balance sheet. At the end of the second quarter, cash and cash equivalents stood at 88 trillion won, up 33.6 trillion won from the previous quarter. Borrowings fell by 700 billion won to 18.6 trillion won, lifting net cash to 69.4 trillion won.■ Long-term supply agreements with more than 10 customersSK hynix said its strategy is to expand long-term supply agreements (LTA) and strengthen its medium- to long-term growth foundation in response to the structural growth in memory demand.
The company believes the market has entered a phase in which demand is rising not only for AI memory but also for general-purpose memory, as AI services expand from training to agent-based inference. It has completed long-term supply agreement talks with more than 10 customers, including key clients, and is continuing additional discussions with other major customers.
Supply of next-generation memory is also ramping up. HBM4, which began mass-production shipments in the second quarter, will see full-scale production expansion in the second half. HBM4E, which uses an optimized process with proven technological maturity and mass-production stability, completed sample deliveries in the first half. Sales of SOCAMM2 also rose sharply in the second quarter, while DRAM supply using the 6th-generation 10nm-class (1c) process is now in full swing. In NAND flash memory, 321-layer products accounted for the largest share of total production. The company plans to expand that share to about 50% of domestic production capacity by year-end.
It is also accelerating investment to expand production capacity. SK hynix plans to move up the mass-production schedule for M15X and carry out related investment so it can quickly expand output after the cleanroom for the first fab of the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster opens in early 2027. The company said the ability to supply customer-requested volumes on time has emerged as a key competitive edge. It also plans to roll out medium- to long-term investments, including the recently announced P&T7 advanced semiconductor packaging plant, the M17 NAND production base, and the new semiconductor cluster, in phases, taking customer demand and investment efficiency into account.
SK hynix said, "We will prepare without delay for medium- to long-term growth opportunities while maintaining our capital investment principles to strengthen both production capacity and financial soundness."
[email protected] Jung Won-il Reporter