SK Hynix Reports Record Profit

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's SK Hynix on Thursday posted a record quarterly profit as the Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) supplier saw strong sales of its advanced chips such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) ones used in generative AI chipsets.

The world's second-biggest memory chipmaker reported a 7 trillion won ($5.07 billion) operating profit for the July-September quarter versus a 1.8 trillion won loss a year earlier.

That compared with a 6.8 trillion won average forecast by LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward analysts who are more consistently accurate.

SK Hynix has outperformed rivals Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) in recent quarters, as it benefits the most from AI-driven appetite for high-end memory chips following its early entry and large investments in HBM chip development.

> "HBM sales showed excellent growth, up more than 70% from the previous quarter and more than 330% from the same period last year," SK Hynix said in a statement.

Revenue for the quarter rose 94% year-on-year to 17.6 trillion won.

SK Hynix shares have jumped 38.5% so far this year, outperforming Samsung, whose stocks have slumped 24.7% over the same period.

Last month, SK Hynix, the main supplier of HBM chips to Nvidia, said it had started mass production of HBM3E 12-layer chips and plans to supply the latest products to unidentified customers by the end of this year.

Its bigger rival Samsung earlier this month warned its third-quarter profit would come in below market expectations and apologized for the disappointing performance, acknowledging its struggle to make headway in supplying high-end chips.

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