SK hynix Sets New Quarterly and Annual Records Driven by HBM

Operating Profit Surpasses 47 Trillion Won, Operating Margin Hits 58%
Record Broken After 7 Years Amid Soaring AI Semiconductor Demand
Accelerating Establishment of Production Bases in Yongin, Cheongju, and the United States

SK hynix has set new records for both its quarterly and annual performance, driven by a surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors.

On January 28, SK hynix announced that its operating profit for the fourth quarter of last year reached 19.1696 trillion won, marking a 137.2% increase compared to the same period the previous year. During the same period, revenue rose by 66.1% to 32.8267 trillion won. Both revenue and operating profit are the highest ever recorded for a single quarter.

The company also saw a remarkable increase in its operating margin, a key indicator of profitability. The operating margin for the fourth quarter stood at 58%, surpassing the previous record of 57% set in the third quarter of 2018, a boom period for semiconductors, and reaching an all-time high after seven years. This is attributed to a sharp increase in the proportion of high value-added products such as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory).

Annual results also showed steep growth. Last year's cumulative revenue reached 97.1467 trillion won, up 46.8% from the previous year, while operating profit soared by 101.2% to 47.2063 trillion won.

The main drivers of this performance growth were the expansion in sales of high value-added products such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) and enterprise SSDs. In the DRAM sector, HBM sales more than doubled year-on-year, contributing significantly to the results. Conventional DRAM also saw the full-scale mass production of sixth-generation (1c nanometer) 10-nanometer-class DDR5, and the development of the industry's largest capacity 256GB DDR5 RDIMM based on fifth-generation (1b nanometer) 10-nanometer-class 32Gb chips, demonstrating leadership in the server module field. The NAND sector also achieved record annual sales, driven by demand for enterprise SSDs in the second half of the year.

SK hynix stated, "This is the result of a strategic response that simultaneously secured profitability and growth by strengthening technological competitiveness and increasing the proportion of high value-added products in line with the demand structure shifting toward AI," adding, "It was a year that once again proved our world-class technological competitiveness."

SK hynix plans to continue securing domestic and overseas production bases to respond to mid- to long-term demand. The company aims to maximize the production capacity of the new M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, at an early stage, is constructing the first fab in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and is pushing forward with the establishment of the Cheongju P&T7 and an advanced packaging plant in Indiana, USA, to strengthen its global integrated manufacturing capabilities.