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Signage of SK Hynix Inc. at the company’s office in Seongnam, South Korea on Monday, April 22, 2024. SK Hynix is expected to release earnings data on April 25. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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South Korea SK Hynixone of the world’s largest memory chip makers, posted record quarterly earnings on Thursday, supported by strong sales of broadband memory (HBM) used in generative AI.
Here are SK Hynix’s fourth-quarter results compared to LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward analyst forecasts that are consistently more accurate:
- Revenue: 19.77 trillion won ($13.7 billion) vs. 19.91 trillion won
- Operating profit: 8.08 trillion won ($5.6 billion) versus 8.02 trillion won
Operating profit in the October to December quarter rose 15% year-on-year to another record-high, as did revenue, which rose 12%.
The South Korean chipmaker has benefited from a boom in artificial intelligence servers and is a key supplier for Nvidia.
“SK Hynix emphasized that with prolonged strong demand for AI memory, the company has achieved [an] All-time high result through world-leading HBM technology and profitability-oriented operation,” the company said in its release of earnings.
HBM is a type of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, in which chips are stacked vertically 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 main manufacturers of HBM chips.
The strong numbers of the fourth quarter concluded a year that saw the company reach a record annual turnover, surpassing the previous maximum in 2022 by more than 21 trillion won.
Meanwhile, operating profit beat a record set in 2018 during a “super boom” in the semiconductor industry.
