SEOUL, Jan 29, 2026, 04:17 KST
- Q4 operating profit soared 137% to 19.2 trillion won ($13.5 billion), surpassing the LSEG SmartEstimate of 17.7 trillion won
- SK Hynix announced plans to cancel 15.3 million treasury shares valued at roughly 12.2 trillion won; shares jumped 9% in after-hours trading
- The company announced a $10 billion investment into a new U.S. entity dedicated to AI-focused ventures
SK Hynix reported a record jump in fourth-quarter operating profit, beating expectations, and announced its largest-ever share buyback, pushing its stock up 9% in after-hours trading. The South Korean memory-chip maker also highlighted that the AI boom will continue fueling strong demand for memory. 1
The results come amid a shift in data-centre spending that’s driving up prices for both high-end and “commodity” memory in servers and devices. Investors are closely monitoring if AI demand can balance out the recent slowdown in PCs and smartphones, where purchases drop sharply once component costs rise.
They’ve also intensified the battle within memory chips. SK Hynix leads the pack in high-bandwidth memory—stacks of DRAM placed alongside AI processors to speed up data transfer—while competitors focus on boosting capacity and improving yields.
The company reported Q4 operating profit soaring 137% to 19.2 trillion won ($13.5 billion), up from 8.1 trillion won the previous year. LSEG’s SmartEstimate, which favors analysts with better track records, projected the quarter at 17.7 trillion won.
SK hynix posted full-year 2025 revenue of 97.1467 trillion won, with operating profit hitting 47.2063 trillion won and net profit at 42.9479 trillion won. The company plans to distribute an extra 1 trillion won in dividends, bringing total FY2025 dividends to 2.1 trillion won, or 3,000 won per share. 2
Song Hyun Jong, president and head of the corporate center, emphasized the company’s focus on balancing investment, financial stability, and returns. “Our aim is to go beyond being just a product supplier and become a key infrastructure partner in the AI era,” he stated.
SK Hynix posted a 58% operating margin in Q4, The Korea Times reported, putting it ahead of other key players in the chip supply chain. 3
According to Macquarie Equity Research, SK Hynix commands a 61% share of the HBM market, Reuters reported. The company also revealed its HBM sales more than doubled in 2025 and confirmed that mass production of next-generation HBM products is progressing.
Contract prices for 16-gigabyte DDR5 DRAM, a common memory type used in computers, have surged more than fourfold compared to last year, according to market tracker TrendForce. Reuters reports that these prices are expected to climb another 55% to 60% this quarter.
SK hynix also announced plans to invest $10 billion in a new U.S. entity, currently dubbed “AI Company.” This will come via a restructuring of its California SSD division, Solidigm, with the capital injected on a call basis. 4
That said, SK Hynix pointed out some vulnerabilities. The company expects orders for memory in PCs and smartphones to trail behind overall market growth. Higher prices and limited supply could dampen demand, despite chipmakers focusing on AI datacentre clients.
Competition is heating up. Macquarie expects a rougher year ahead, forecasting SK Hynix’s HBM share to drop to 53% as Samsung Electronics pushes to narrow the lead, Reuters reported.
