SK hynix reported record third-quarter results on October 28, with operating profit of 83.33 trillion won on revenue of 104.62 trillion won. It is the first time the South Korean memory maker's quarterly revenue has topped 100 trillion won. Operating margin hit 80%, up from 76% in the second quarter and 47% a year earlier, on demand for high-bandwidth memory tied to AI infrastructure spending.
Revenue rose 32% from the second quarter and 328% year over year. Operating profit climbed 38% sequentially and 632% from the 11.38 trillion won SK hynix earned in the third quarter of 2025. Net profit came in at 39.78 trillion won, down 58% from 93.92 trillion won in the second quarter but up 216% from a year ago. The company said the figures are preliminary and subject to audit.
The numbers cleared expectations. The past month's average brokerage forecast compiled by FnGuide called for revenue of 96.66 trillion won and operating profit of 75.97 trillion won, leaving SK hynix 8.2% ahead on sales and 9.7% ahead on profit. Its operating margin has now risen from about 72% in the first quarter to 76.3% in the second and 79.7% in the third.
Key facts
- 01SK hynix Q3 2026 operating profit hit a record 83.33 trillion won on revenue of 104.62 trillion won.
- 02Operating margin reached 80%, up from 76% in Q2 and 47% a year earlier.
- 03SK hynix expects HBM4 to overtake HBM3E in shipments and revenue in Q4 2026.
- 04Long-term deals with 14 customers cover more than 50% of capacity for 2027 and 2028.
- 05SK hynix targets about 100 trillion won in shareholder returns for fiscal 2026.
HBM4 carried the quarter. SK hynix said HBM4 shipments began in earnest in the third quarter, and it expects HBM4 to overtake HBM3E in both shipments and revenue in the fourth quarter to become its mainstream product. Server DDR5 also lifted DRAM sales, while NAND grew on 321-layer TLC enterprise SSDs. On the earnings call, management said HBM4 yields are running above target and that the company has raised its yield goal.
Much of the next two years is already spoken for. SK hynix has signed long-term agreements, typically five years in length, with 14 major customers including global cloud providers. Those contracts cover more than half of its total production capacity for 2027 and 2028, and management said HBM4 volume and pricing for next year have been finalized with major customers.
“The customer trust that we have built through our technological leadership is translating into long-term agreements”— Kwak Noh-Jung, President and CEO of SK hynix
SK hynix expects memory supply to fall short of demand through 2030, citing the technical difficulty of leading-edge processes and long fab lead times. To add output, it plans to ramp its M15X fab to maximum capacity by year-end for HBM4, and its Yongin Phase 1 site enters full-scale operation next year. The company gave no capex figure, saying it will adjust the scale and timing of investment based on customer demand, profitability and investment efficiency.
The product roadmap keeps moving. HBM4E samples shipped in the second quarter, and custom HBM for major customers is in preparation. For the fourth quarter, SK hynix guided DRAM shipments up in the mid-20% range sequentially and NAND shipments up in the mid-single digits, with more DDR5 and LPDDR5 SOCAMM modules headed into AI servers as its sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class 1c DRAM ramps.
The balance sheet swelled with the profits. Cash and equivalents reached 114.5 trillion won, up 26.5 trillion won in one quarter, while borrowings fell 2.8 trillion won to 15.8 trillion won, leaving net cash of 98.7 trillion won.
SK hynix set a fiscal 2026 shareholder return target of about 100 trillion won: at least 30 trillion won in dividends and at least 60 trillion won in buybacks and cancellations, including a 40 trillion won repurchase announced in August and completed last week. For the third quarter, the board approved a 14 trillion won cash dividend of 20,000 won per share, half of it a special payout tied to gains on its Kioxia investment, plus a 20 trillion won share repurchase. About 10 trillion won of that buyback will go to employee compensation and is excluded from the return total.
SK hynix said it intends to return at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders and will continue buybacks every quarter. Its U.S.-listed shares rose 1.9% in regular trading to $145.36 and gained another 6.1% after hours to $154.24 following the release.
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