SK hynix posts all-time-high quarterly sales thanks to AI
South Korea's memory specialist SK hynix disclosed revenue of $11.8 billion in the April to June quarter, a year-on-year increase of 125% and its best ever performance.
SK hynix is the world’s second-largest memory chip maker by revenue, and is a key supplier to Nvidia. Nvidia currently uses SK hynix's HBM3 and HBM3E memory modules for AI GPUs, including the Hopper H100, the forthcoming Hopper H200 and the Blackwell B100.
This relationship, and the soaring demand for chips that can power AI applications, has powered a major turnaround for SK hynix. Its Q2 operating profit was 5.47 trillion won (USD 3.96 billion) after a loss of 2.9 trillion won (USD 2.2 billion) a year earlier. This was SK Hynix's third consecutive quarterly profit after losses last year, and its highest since surpassing the 5-trillion-won mark in 2018.
The firm hopes to keep the momentum moving upwards with the announcement that it will supply next-gen 12-layer HBM3E chips to customers before the end of the year. SK hynix started volume production of HBM3E1, the latest AI memory product with ultra-high performance, to a customer from late March.
"The strong demand for advanced AI memories such as the High Bandwidth Memory chip in the fast-growing AI market, and the continuous rise in overall prices of DRAM and NAND flash memory led to an on-quarter increase of 32 percent in revenues," said SK hynix Chief Financial Officer Kim Woo-hyun during an earnings call for the second quarter.
In its Q2 filing, SK hynix offered a rosy outlook. It expects demand for AI server memory to keep rising, and it predicts strong demand for new PC and mobile devices that support on-device AI too. Last month, the chipmaker announced its plan to invest 103 trillion won by 2028, with 80 percent of its spend focusing on AI chips including HBM.
