SK hynix Quarterly Revenue Tops 100 Trillion Won for First Time; 83 Trillion Won Operating Profit

What happened

On Oct. 28, SK hynix reported consolidated revenue of 104.62 trillion won for the third quarter of this year, exceeding 100 trillion won in quarterly revenue for the first time, with operating profit of 83.33 trillion won; the figures represented year-on-year increases of 327.9% and 632.1% respectively, and quarter-on-quarter increases of 31.9% and 37.6%, both slightly exceeding market consensus estimates. Operating margin reached 79.7%, up 3.5 percentage points from the previous quarter; net profit totaled 39.78 trillion won, up 215.7% from a year earlier but down 57.7% from the preceding quarter. The company attributed its DRAM performance to increased shipments of fourth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) and expanded sales of DDR5 memory for servers; the NAND business grew on increased sales of 321-layer enterprise SSDs (eSSDs) and greater focus on high-value-added data center products. SK hynix expanded long-term supply agreements (LTAs) securing contracts covering more than 50% of its total production capacity for both 2027 and 2028, has signed LTAs with 14 major customers including large global cloud service providers (CSPs), and is discussing extending contract durations beyond the typical five-year term. The company expects the memory supply shortage to persist through 2030, citing increasing technical complexity in advanced processes and the time required to build new facilities as sustaining a market structure in which demand exceeds supply. In the fourth quarter, it plans to raise the share of its sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class 1c process in conventional DRAM production and expand sales of DDR5 and LPDDR5-based SOCAMM modules for AI servers; in NAND, it aims to lift its flagship 321-layer products to more than half of domestic production capacity. To meet surging HBM demand, it plans to maximize capacity at its Cheongju M15X facility by the end of the year and expand HBM4 production, expecting HBM4 to become its mainstay product in the fourth quarter, surpassing HBM3E in shipment volume and revenue. Investment spending is expected to increase significantly next year, including full-scale operations starting at its first Yongin fab. The company also plans shareholder returns totaling approximately 100 trillion won, including more than 30 trillion won in cash dividends for fiscal 2026 and a total of 60 trillion won in buybacks and cancellations (including the 40 trillion won announced in August), with a commitment to return more than 50% of free cash flow. On Oct. 28 the board approved a third-quarter cash dividend of 14 trillion won and 20 trillion won of share repurchases, of which 10 trillion won will be canceled; the remaining ~10 trillion won is for employee compensation and excluded from shareholder returns. The third-quarter dividend is 20,000 won per share, comprising a 10,000-won dividend reflecting improved earnings and a 10,000-won special dividend sharing gains from its Kioxia investment.

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Source and time

Source: The Elec · 10/28/2026 · View original source