On Thursday, SK Hynix reported blowout first-quarter results, saying demand tied to artificial intelligence helped push quarterly revenue past KRW 50 trillion ($33.7 billion) for the first time. The memory maker also laid out plans for new DRAM and NAND products to dominate the memory market.
SK Hynix Q1 Results
Nvidia-supplier SK Hynix recorded KRW 52.58 trillion ($35.57 billion) in revenue, up 60% from the fourth quarter and 198% from the year-ago quarter. This is the first time the company has surpassed 50 trillion won in quarterly revenue.
Operating profit reached a record high of KRW 37.6 trillion ($25.4 billion) with an operating margin of 72%. Operating profit jumped fivefold from the year-ago quarter and has nearly doubled from the fourth quarter of 2025, clearly demonstrating improving profitability.
AI Demand Fuels Unprecedented Growth
Management attributed the surge to customers continuing to fund AI infrastructure even as the first quarter is typically slower for the industry. SK Hynix said it sold more high-end products, pointing to HBM, larger server DRAM modules, and enterprise SSDs.
SK Hynix Plans To Dominate Memory Market
Looking ahead, the South Korean memory giant said it expects memory demand to expand across DRAM and NAND as AI shifts from model training toward real-time inference across services. The company said it expects pricing to stay supportive in both DRAM and NAND flash. It also pointed to memory-efficiency technologies as a potential catalyst that could make AI services cheaper to run and therefore larger in scale.
On product plans, the company said it will keep introducing new offerings in DRAM and NAND flash as demand becomes more varied. In DRAM, the memory maker said it will ramp LPDDR6 built on its 1cnm process, and highlighted that a 192GB SOCAMM will enter mass production in April. On NAND, the company pointed to a 321-layer QLC cSSD product and an eSSD lineup spanning high-performance TLC and high-capacity QLC.
Strategic Talent Acquisition Amid Memory Crunch
The robust results align with the company’s recent initiatives to accelerate its push in AI chips through hiring, capacity expansion, and strategic investments.
The company has opened applications for new production roles to meet the growing demand for advanced memory solutions driven by AI. This push for talent comes as the broader semiconductor industry grapples with a significant memory crunch, which has been projected to persist through 2027.
Strategic IPO Moves Amid Fierce Competition
The competitive environment within the AI chip market is intensifying as SK Hynix prepares to confidentially file for a U.S. IPO in the second half of 2026, potentially offering 2% to 3% of its shares. This move could raise up to $14 billion, which the company plans to use to build new chip factories in both South Korea and Indiana to satisfy the surging demand from AI data centers.
Price Action: At the time of writing, SK Hynix stock was seen trading nearly 2% lower at KRW 1,198,000 ($808.53) in Seoul.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by a Benzinga editor.
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