A visitor takes a picture of a model of SK hynix’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology during the 2025 World IT Show in Seoul on April 24, 2025.
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images
South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday posted record operating profit and revenue in the second quarter, driven by sustained demand for its high bandwidth memory used in artificial intelligence technology.
Here are SK Hynix’s second-quarter results compared with LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
- Revenue: 22.23 trillion won ($16.17 billion) vs. 20.56 trillion won
- Operating profit: 9.21 trillion won vs. 9 trillion won
Revenue rose over 35% in the June quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while operating profit rose nearly 69%, year on year.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue rose 26%, while operating profit jumped 24%.
SK Hynix makes memory chips that are used to store data and can be found in everything from servers to consumer devices such as smartphones and laptops.
The company said in a statement that it enjoyed strong demand and favorable pricing conditions in the first half of the year. It added that there was a low likelihood of sharp demand corrections for the rest of 2025, due to stable customer inventory levels and expected demand from new product launches.
SK Hynix’s leadership in dynamic random access memory — a type of semiconductor memory commonly found in PCs, workstations and servers — has challenged rival Samsung Electronics’ position in the memory space.
The company’s shares were up 1.3%, having risen over 3% in early trade.
AI dominance
Much of SK Hynix’s recent success in this area can be credited to its business in high bandwidth memory, or HBM — a type of DRAM used for artificial intelligence computing. SK Hynix has established itself as the global leader in HBM, supplying clients such as U.S. AI darling Nvidia.
“Demand for AI memory continued to grow, driven by aggressive AI investments from big tech companies,” Song Hyun-jong, president and head of the Corporate Center at SK Hynix, said in the earnings call.
The company expects this investment to continue to drive healthy demand growth in the AI server market, despite macro uncertainty, with demand for general-purpose servers also expected to grow.
Further development of AI agents with enhanced reasoning models will necessitate more high-performance memory, according to Song, who added that the proliferation of AI in the PC and smartphone market will boost demand further.
“Additionally, ongoing investments by governments and corporations for solving AI are likely to become a new long term driver of AI memory demand,” Song said.
The company expects to double HBM sales for the full year compared to 2024 — they contributed 77% to its second-quarter revenue.
As SK Hynix’s HBM sales rise, it is also planning to complete preparations for mass production of its next-generation memory, HBM4, before the end of this year.
SK Hynix said it expected its capital expenditure in 2025 to increase, with “proactive investment” needed to ensure support for its HBM customers in 2026.
Intense competition
In the first quarter, SK Hynix’s success in HBM had seen the company overtake rival Samsung in the global DRAM market for the first time, according to Counterpoint Research.
A report from the research firm earlier this month found that SK Hynix had matched Samsung’s combined DRAM and NAND revenues in the second quarter, with both now vying for the top position in the global memory market. NAND is a type of flash memory that is used to store data in various devices.
Samsung and U.S.-based memory maker Micron Technology are both seeking to catch up to SK Hynix in the HBM space.
Micron is deploying some of its advanced products for use with Nvidia and other customers such as AMD. Meanwhile, Samsung has reportedly been working to get the latest version of its HBM chips certified by Nvidia. However, analysts expect SK Hynix’s dominance to persist in the short-term.
“As of now, I believe SK Hynix still holds its leadership in the HBM race … despite Samsung’s and Micron’s catch‑up efforts,” said Ray Wang, research director of semiconductors, supply chain and emerging technology at The Futurum Group.
“I expect this edge to persist through the rest of 2025 and extend into 2026,” he added.
On the earnings call, an SK Hynix representative had also noted that uncertainty around U.S. tariff policies led to increased purchasing demand in the first half of the year. Sales in the second half could be impacted depending on how future tariff policies evolve, the company said.
Amid tariff uncertainty, South Korea announced a 33 trillion won ($24.1 billion) support package for the country’s semiconductor industry in April, up about a quarter from a package committed last year.