South Korea’s SK Hynix Forecasts Doubling of High-End Semiconductor Sales Amid Strong Quarterly Profit
SEOUL – South Korea’s SK Hynix forecast that its sales of high-end semiconductors used in generative artificial intelligence chipsets would more than double this year, after reporting a quarterly profit record that beat a results estimate for rival Samsung.
However, shares in SK Hynix fell as much as 4.7% as the company warned of steeper demand declines in commodity memory chips used in smartphones and computers as Chinese competition grows. The shares have since recovered to trade down 0.2% at midday.
SK Hynix’s factory investment plan for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips this year also underwhelmed investors, analysts said. The company said supply will remain tight for high-performance chips as a result of rising demand, but demand declines will accelerate for legacy products.
The world’s second-biggest memory chipmaker posted an operating profit of 8.1 trillion won ($5.64 billion) in the October-December quarter, slightly above expectations and exceeding Samsung’s estimated fourth-quarter operating profit of 6.5 trillion won.
SK Hynix said its shipments of DRAM and NAND flash memory chips would decline by between 10% and 20% in the first quarter from the previous quarter. The company has been increasingly outperforming rivals Samsung and U.S.-based Micron Technology in recent quarters, as it benefits the most from AI-driven appetite for high-end memory chips.
However, SK Hynix told analysts its 2025 capital expenditure would rise only slightly from last year, with investments focusing on HBM production and new factories in South Korea. The company has already begun supply talks for 2026 for the HBM chips used in AI chipsets and expected to have better visibility in the first half about shipment plans for next year.
