SK hynix: enormous margin surge

SK hynix said on April 23 that its first-quarter operating margin reached 72% as artificial-intelligence memory sales pushed revenue above 50 trillion won for the first time. (news.skhynix.com) The South Korean chipmaker reported 52.5763 trillion won in revenue, 37.6103 trillion won in operating profit and 40.3459 trillion won in net profit for the January-to-March quarter. The company said operating profit nearly doubled from the prior quarter. (news.skhynix.com) SK hynix said the quarter was lifted by higher sales of high-bandwidth memory, high-capacity server dynamic random-access memory modules and enterprise solid-state drives. Reuters reported the company told investors that customer requests for high-bandwidth memory over the next three years already exceed its production capacity. (news.skhynix.com, usnews.com) High-bandwidth memory is the premium memory stacked next to artificial-intelligence processors to move data faster and with less power than standard chips. Nvidia’s AI systems and other data-center hardware have turned that niche product into one of the tightest supply points in the semiconductor chain. (cnbc.com, news.skhynix.com) That supply squeeze is showing up in prices. Reuters cited TrendForce data showing contract prices for some dynamic random-access memory chips rose nearly 83% in the first quarter from the prior quarter, while some NAND flash products rose about 160%. (usnews.com, trendforce.com) The margin stands out even against other chip leaders. TrendForce said SK hynix’s 72% operating margin topped Micron’s 67.6% in fiscal second quarter 2026 and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 58.1% in the first quarter of 2026. (trendforce.com, investors.micron.com, investor.tsmc.com) SK hynix said cash and cash equivalents rose by 19.4 trillion won from the previous quarter to 54.3 trillion won, while interest-bearing debt fell by 2.9 trillion won to 19.3 trillion won. The company said that left it with a net cash position of 35 trillion won at quarter end. (news.skhynix.com) The company said it expects favorable pricing in dynamic random-access memory and NAND flash to continue as AI spending expands from model training into real-time inference services. It also said 2026 investment will rise from 30.2 trillion won last year, with spending tied to the Yongin cluster, the M15X fab and more equipment purchases. (news.skhynix.com, usnews.com) For now, the quarter shows where the money is landing in the AI buildout: not only with the companies designing processors, but with the suppliers making the scarce memory those processors need to run. (news.skhynix.com, cnbc.com)