'HBM Power' SK Hynix Achieves Record-High Revenue and Operating Profit Last Year

Record-High Revenue, Operating Profit, and Net Profit Since Founding
Operating Profit Hits 23 Trillion Won, Revenue 66 Trillion Won, Net Profit 19 Trillion Won
Fourth-Quarter Operating Profit Reaches 8.08 Trillion Won, Surpassing Samsung

SK Hynix achieved its highest-ever performance last year, led by its flagship product, high-bandwidth memory (HBM). The company recorded all-time highs in revenue, operating profit, and net profit since its founding. Its quarterly operating profit not only surpassed that of Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions (DS) division, which is also engaged in the semiconductor business, but also exceeded the operating profit of all Samsung Electronics business units combined.

SK Hynix Yonhap News

On January 23, SK Hynix announced in a regulatory filing that, on a consolidated basis, its operating profit for the previous year reached 23.4673 trillion won, marking a turnaround from an operating loss of 7.7303 trillion won in the prior year.

Last year’s revenue was 66.193 trillion won, a 102% increase year-on-year. Net profit turned positive, reaching 19.7969 trillion won. Revenue exceeded the previous record set in 2022 (44.6216 trillion won) by more than 21 trillion won, and operating profit surpassed the 2018 figure (20.8437 trillion won) recorded during the previous memory supercycle.

SK Hynix explained, “In the fourth quarter, HBM, which continued to show high growth, accounted for more than 40% of total DRAM revenue, and enterprise SSD sales also continued to expand. Based on differentiated product competitiveness and a profitability-focused management approach, we established a stable financial structure, which in turn supported ongoing improvements in performance.”

Operating profit for the fourth quarter of last year was 8.0828 trillion won, up 2,235.8% from the same period a year earlier. This figure far exceeded the operating profit of Samsung Electronics, which competes in the semiconductor sector with its HBM and other products. Samsung Electronics had previously reported an operating profit of 6.5 trillion won for the fourth quarter of last year. Although detailed results were not disclosed, securities analysts and industry sources estimate that the DS division posted around 3 trillion won in operating profit. For the full year, Samsung Electronics’ DS division is estimated to have achieved approximately 15 trillion won in operating profit. This marks the first time that SK Hynix’s annual operating profit has surpassed that of Samsung Electronics’ DS division.

SK Hynix also posted strong results in the fourth quarter, with revenue and net profit of 19.767 trillion won and 8.0065 trillion won, respectively. Both quarterly revenue and operating profit set new all-time records on a quarterly basis. Based on these results, SK Hynix reported that its cash and cash equivalents at the end of last year stood at 14.2 trillion won, an increase of 5.2 trillion won from the end of the previous year, while borrowings decreased by 6.8 trillion won to 22.7 trillion won over the same period. The debt ratio and net debt ratio improved significantly, to 31% and 12%, respectively.

Meanwhile, SK Hynix raised its annual fixed dividend from 1,200 won to 1,500 won per share, a 25% increase, expanding the total annual cash dividend to about 1 trillion won. The company stated that, going forward, it will pay only the fixed dividend, and the 5% of annual free cash flow (FCF) that was previously included in the dividend policy will instead be prioritized to strengthen financial soundness.

Kim Woohyun, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Vice President of SK Hynix, said, “By significantly increasing the proportion of high value-added product sales, we have established a business structure that enables more stable revenue and profit even during market adjustments, compared to the past. Going forward, we will maintain our principle of investing mainly in products with secured profitability, while making investment decisions flexibly in response to market changes.”

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