SK Hynix Posts Record Fourth Quarter Operating Profit as AI Demand Surges
SK Hynix reported a record operating profit of 19.2 trillion won for the fourth quarter. The company also announced its largest-ever treasury-share cancellation.
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SK hynix Inc. in KR 
KRreported a record fourth-quarter operating profit that more than doubled to trounce market forecasts, fueled by surging demand for memory chips tied to artificial intelligence. The South Korean company booked an operating profit of 19.2 trillion won for the quarter, representing a 137% surge from the previous year. This result surpassed a LSEG SmartEstimate prediction of 17.7 trillion won. Alongside the earnings beat, the chipmaker announced its largest-ever treasury-share cancellation of 15.3 million shares, worth approximately 12.2 trillion won and equivalent to 2.1% of its total shares outstanding. The strong financial performance and the capital return move helped propel shares of SK hynix Inc.9% higher in after-hours trading.
KRreported a record fourth-quarter operating profit that more than doubled to trounce market forecasts, fueled by surging demand for memory chips tied to artificial intelligence. The South Korean company booked an operating profit of 19.2 trillion won for the quarter, representing a 137% surge from the previous year. This result surpassed a LSEG SmartEstimate prediction of 17.7 trillion won. Alongside the earnings beat, the chipmaker announced its largest-ever treasury-share cancellation of 15.3 million shares, worth approximately 12.2 trillion won and equivalent to 2.1% of its total shares outstanding. The strong financial performance and the capital return move helped propel shares of SK hynix Inc.9% higher in after-hours trading.The company stated that the boom in artificial intelligence would continue to spur explosive growth in memory chip demand. According to Macquarie Equity Research, SK hynix Inc.currently commands a 61% share of the high bandwidth memory or HBM market, and its HBM sales more than doubled in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. These advanced chips are integral to the artificial intelligence chipsets produced by companies like NVIDIA Corporation . SK hynix Inc.also confirmed that mass production of its next-generation HBM chips is progressing as planned. Analysts have noted that chipmakers are currently prioritising sales to companies building out AI data centres to capitalize on high-margin demand.
