SK Hynix's Record-Breaking Performance Hero HBM: "Following the Roadmap"

Sales Up 330% Year-on-Year
5th Generation Shipments Surpass 4th Generation
12-Layer Supply to Nvidia Expected in Q4
Accelerating Market Leadership Consolidation

SK Hynix's High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) has firmly established itself as a flagship product, playing a key role as the "driving force" behind the record-breaking performance announced on the 24th. Through the third-quarter results this year, SK Hynix reaffirmed the profitability and growth potential of HBM and plans to further solidify its market leadership by accelerating the development of next-generation HBM.

SK Hynix reported third-quarter sales of 17.0573 trillion KRW and operating profit of 7.03 trillion KRW, with HBM accounting for a significant portion of these figures. The company stated that HBM made up 30% of DRAM sales, and this ratio is expected to reach the 40% range in the fourth quarter.

During the conference call following the earnings announcement, SK Hynix said, "HBM sales increased by more than 70% compared to the previous quarter and over 330% year-over-year, leading the revenue growth." In particular, they emphasized that "shipments of the 5th generation HBM3E during the third quarter surpassed those of the existing 4th generation HBM3," indicating a smooth transition to a more profitable structure with improved-performance HBM products.

Building on these achievements, SK Hynix plans to continue pursuing the previously established "HBM roadmap" to maintain its market dominance. Starting in the fourth quarter, the company will begin full-scale supply of the 12-layer HBM3E products to key customers in the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market, such as NVIDIA. SK Hynix President Kwak No-jeong also stated in an interview with reporters before attending the ‘Semiconductor Day’ ceremony on the 22nd, "The mass production and shipment of the 12-layer HBM3E products are proceeding as planned within this year."

With the full-scale supply of the 12-layer HBM3E products, SK Hynix’s profitability is expected to strengthen further. Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) recently reported that SK Hynix’s HBM orders are booked through 2026?2027, and the large-scale capital investments expected to reach 16 to 20 trillion KRW this year will contribute to expanding HBM market share.

In addition to HBM, SK Hynix plans to expand its supply scope through various product lines. Last week, President Kwak visited imec, Europe’s largest comprehensive semiconductor research and development institute in Belgium, where he exchanged views with CEO Luc Van den Hove and other key executives on the research and development directions of the latest semiconductor technologies.

In the NAND sector, SK Hynix will focus on investment efficiency and production optimization while expanding sales of high-capacity eSSD products, which are experiencing rapidly growing demand. Kim Woo-hyun, SK Hynix’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), said, "We will secure stable sales and maximize profitability through flexible product and supply strategies tailored to market demand going forward."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.