SK Hynix posts 137% surge in Q4 profit as AI demand accelerates

SK Hynix closed out 2025 with a blowout fourth quarter, logging ₩19.2 trillion in operating profit, up 137% from the same time last year.

Revenue hit ₩32.8 trillion, rising 34% quarter-on-quarter. Net income reached ₩15.2 trillion, up 21% from Q3. Every number broke a record.

The year itself wasn’t quiet either. Full-year revenue hit ₩97.1 trillion, operating profit came in at ₩47.2 trillion, and net income was ₩42.9 trillion. Those are all-time highs. SK’s operating margin was 49%, while net margin stood at 44%.

Compared to 2024, that’s a ₩30 trillion revenue gain, and profit more than doubled. The previous year had ₩66.1 trillion in revenue and ₩23.4 trillion in operating profit.

HBM leads profit spike as DRAM and NAND follow

HBM sales more than doubled year-on-year, driving the gains. SK said it’s the only supplier able to ship both HBM3E and HBM4 at the same time. They started mass production of HBM4 in September. By the end of the year, they had started large-scale shipping to meet orders. They also said demand for Custom HBM kept rising.

SK Hynix’s server DRAM also had a big year. They began full production of their 1cnm process, the sixth generation of their 10nm tech. They also introduced a 256GB DDR5 RDIMM, made with 32Gb 1b-class DRAM, aimed at hyperscale buyers.

On the NAND side, demand was slow in the first half, but picked up fast. They finished development of 321-layer QLC products and responded to eSSD demand in the second half. That pushed NAND to its highest revenue ever.

SK said more AI firms are moving from training to inference models, and that’s pushing the need for more memory. They expect server DRAM and NAND to keep growing along with HBM. The need isn’t just for performance. It’s for volume.

SK scales fabs and approves massive shareholder return

SK Hynix said it’s ramping up production at the M15X fab in Cheongju, and building its first fab at the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster. They’re also expanding packaging facilities in Cheongju and Indiana to handle both front-end and back-end manufacturing across different locations. This is how they say they’ll keep up with the pace of orders.

They’re also giving money back to shareholders. The company will pay a ₩1 trillion special dividend, or ₩1,500 per share. Combined with the regular ₩375 payout, the total year-end dividend hits ₩1,875. That brings the total dividend for FY2025 to ₩3,000 per share, or ₩2.1 trillion total.

On top of that, they’re canceling 15.3 million treasury shares, which is 2.1% of total outstanding, worth around ₩12.2 trillion based on the closing price on the 27th. The company said this shows commitment to long-term shareholder value.

Song Hyun Jong, SK’s president, said they would stay focused on performance while balancing future investment. “We will strengthen our role not merely as a product supplier, but as a core infrastructure partner in the AI era, enabling customers to meet their AI performance requirements,” Song said.

Looking ahead, SK Hynix plans to expand its AI memory lineup. For DRAM, that includes SOCAMM2 and GDDR7. For NAND, the company wants to stay ahead using 321-layer tech and serve AI data center storage needs through Solidigm’s QLC eSSD.

They also said they’d be working closely with customers to stay ahead of supply issues.

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