Nvidia supplier SK Hynix posts record quarterly profit on strength of AI boom

South Korea’s SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chipmakers, 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% year over year to another record-high, as did revenue, which rose 12%. 

The South Korean chipmaker has benefitted from a boom in artificial intelligence servers and is a key supplier to 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.