SK Hynix Inc. signage at the company’s office in Seongnam, South Korea, on Monday, April 22, 2024. SK Hynix is scheduled to release earnings figures on April 25. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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South Korea’s SK Hynix, one of the largest memory chipmakers in the world, posted record quarterly earnings on Thursday, supported by strong sales of high bandwidth memory (HBM) used in generative AI.
Here are SK Hynix’s fourth-quarter results compared with LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
- Revenue: 19.77 trillion won ($13.7 billion) vs. 19.91 trillion won
- Operating profit: 8.08 trillion won ($5.6 billion) vs. 8.02 trillion won
Operating profit in the October-December quarter grew 15% since the previous quarter to another record-high, as did revenue, which rose 12%.
The chipmaker has benefitted from a boom in artificial intelligence servers and is a key supplier to U.S. chip designer Nvidia.
“SK Hynix emphasized that with prolonged strong demand for AI memory, the company achieved [an] all-time high result through world-leading HBM technology and profitability-oriented operation,” the company said in its earnings release.
HBM is a type of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, in which chips are vertically stacked to save space and reduce power consumption. The technology is often used in products such as laptops and PCs.
SK Hynix, Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics are the three top manufacturers of HBM chips.
The strong fourth-quarter numbers conclude a year that saw the company reach record yearly revenue, exceeding the previous high in 2022 by over 21 trillion won. Meanwhile, operating profit, beat a record set in 2018 during a “super boom” in the semiconductor industry.
Correction: This article has been revised to reflect updated quarter-on-quarter growth data after SK Hynix amended its press release.
