SK hynix has reported its highest-ever quarterly results, supported by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI).

SK hynix announced on the 23rd that it posted operating results for the first quarter of this year of KRW 5.25763 trillion in revenue and KRW 3.76103 trillion in operating profit. Compared with the same period a year earlier, revenue increased 198% and operating profit rose 405%. The operating margin was 72%. Quarterly revenue, operating profit, and operating margin all marked record highs.

An SK hynix official said, “Although the first quarter is typically a seasonally slow period, strong demand continued on the back of expanded investment in AI infrastructure,” adding, “In particular, increased sales of high value-added products such as high bandwidth memory (HBM), high-capacity server DRAM modules, and eSSDs drove the earnings improvement.”

The favorable earnings also improved cash flow. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the first quarter amounted to KRW 5.43 trillion, an increase of KRW 1.94 trillion from the previous quarter. In contrast, borrowings declined by KRW 290 billion to KRW 1.93 trillion, resulting in net cash of KRW 3.5 trillion.
The company stated that AI technology trends are evolving toward the “agentic AI” stage. It explained that the mainstream is shifting away from training large models toward real-time, iterative inference across diverse service environments. As a result, the memory demand base is broadening across both DRAM and NAND. It also assessed that rising requirements for memory efficiency technologies are likely to sustain a favorable pricing environment for both DRAM and NAND.

The AI market is still in a situation where demand exceeds available supply capacity, according to the company’s assessment. It emphasized that securing supply capabilities to respond to structurally growing demand in the AI era is emerging as a core competitive factor. In line with this, SK hynix said this year’s investment volume will increase significantly from last year, focusing on ramping up the M15X plant, preparing infrastructure centered on the Yongin Cluster, and securing key equipment such as EUV tools. SK hynix plans to respond to diversified memory demand by continuing new product development and supply across both DRAM and NAND.

For HBM, the company intends to strengthen its overall execution capabilities on the basis of performance, yield, quality, and supply stability. In DRAM, it will ramp up supply of LPDDR6, which applies the world’s first 10-nanometer-class sixth-generation (1c) process, and the 192GB SOCAMM (Small Outline Compression Attached Memory Module)2, whose mass production began this month based on the same process.

In NAND, following the start of supply of the cSSD “PQC21” that applies 321-layer QLC (Quadruple Level Cell) technology based on CTF (Charge Trap Flash), the company plans to respond flexibly to overall AI demand with a lineup that spans high-performance TLC and high-capacity QLC across the entire eSSD segment. In particular, it aims to strengthen competitiveness in AI data center and AI PC storage markets by leveraging synergies with Solidigm, which has strengths in high-capacity QLC eSSDs.

An SK hynix official said, “We will strategically expand our production base to preemptively respond to medium- to long-term demand growth,” adding, “By making investments that take demand visibility into consideration, we plan to secure both supply stability and financial soundness.”

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