SK Hynix said on Wednesday (July 29) that its operating profit for the second quarter of 2026 reached 60.5426 trillion won (approximately HK$326.3 billion), up 557% year-on-year and hitting an all-time quarterly high, driven by artificial intelligence demand.
Revenue for the same period came to 79.3187 trillion won (around HK$427.5 billion), a 257% year-on-year jump and also a new quarterly record. The operating margin reached 76%, up 4 percentage points from the previous quarter, marking the third consecutive quarter it has surpassed TSMC’s margin.
For the first half of the year, cumulative revenue reached 131 trillion won (about HK$706.1 billion), exceeding the 100-trillion-won mark (roughly HK$539 billion) for the first time. First-half operating profit was approximately 98 trillion won (around HK$528.2 billion), closing in on 100 trillion won.
SK Hynix said that continued price rises in DRAM and NAND flash memory, combined with stronger sales of high-value-added products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), AI-server DRAM and enterprise solid-state drives, were the main reasons for the sharp improvement in performance. The company has completed negotiations on long-term supply agreements with about 10 major clients and expects the growth in memory demand driven by AI infrastructure investment to persist for some time.
Earlier, Korean media reported that SK Hynix reached an agreement with its labour union last year to allocate 10% of annual operating profit as employee performance bonuses, with no cap on payouts. Based on current full-year operating profit forecasts, the average bonus per employee could reach approximately 700 million to 800 million won (around HK$3.78 million to HK$4.32 million).
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