TLDR
- SK Hynix (SKHY) is up about 8% pre-market at $156.55 after closing Tuesday at $145.36.
- September quarter operating profit hit 83.3 trillion won, up from 11.4 trillion won a year earlier.
- Profit and revenue (104.6 trillion won) both beat analyst estimates.
- The company announced a 100 trillion won investor return program for 2026.
- SK Hynix expects memory supply shortages to last through 2030.
SK Hynix (SKHY) stock is trading higher before the open on Wednesday after the company reported a seven-fold jump in quarterly profit. It was at $156.55 in pre-market trading, up 8%, after closing Tuesday at $145.36, up 2%.
In Seoul, the stock (000660) rose about 11%. The company posted results on Wednesday morning local time.
Operating profit came in at 83.3 trillion won for the September quarter. That compares with 11.4 trillion won a year earlier.
SK HYNIX $SKHY Q3’26 EARNINGS HIGHLIGHTS
🔹 Revenue: $78.9B (Est. $74.8B) 🟢; +328% YoY
🔹 Oper Profit: $62.8B (Est. $58.5B) 🟢; +632% YoY
🔹 Oper Margin: 80%; +3,300 bps YoY; record high
🔹 QoQ: Revenue +32% / Oper Profit +38%Q4 Guide:
🔹 DRAM Bit Growth: Mid-20% QoQ
🔹 NAND… pic.twitter.com/GkVRgwt3L6— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) October 27, 2026
Analysts were looking for less. Bloomberg’s average estimate was 77.5 trillion won, and the LSEG SmartEstimate was 76.7 trillion won.
Revenue climbed to 104.6 trillion won. The average estimate was 99 trillion won.
Memory prices drive the record
Reuters said the profit was a record high for the company. It put the figure at $62.8 billion.
AI demand is pushing memory prices up. SK Hynix supplies high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to Nvidia (NVDA), which rose about 1% on Tuesday.
MS Hwang, a director at Counterpoint Research, said the jump came mostly from price hikes in conventional DRAM and NAND. HBM prices are also climbing.
Operating margins remain at historically high levels because supply is tight. On Wednesday, the company said it expects memory shortages to last through 2030.
Like Samsung Electronics and Micron, SK Hynix has shifted production toward HBM in recent years. That has tightened supply of conventional memory chips.
Macquarie research says memory now makes up roughly a third of AI data center costs. The firm expects HBM prices to more than double in 2027.
Payout plan and Solidigm
SK Hynix also unveiled an additional investor return program for 2026. It is worth 100 trillion won, which Bloomberg put at about $75 billion.
The company has prioritized long-term contracts with customers including Nvidia. Hwang said quarterly earnings have not peaked and could keep rising through at least 2027.
The payout follows a decision to drop a possible US listing of its Solidigm unit. Investor opposition and regulatory scrutiny were behind that move.
Doubts about AI spending had grown in recent weeks, with financing and construction challenges hitting data center projects. Wednesday’s results eased some of that concern.
Solidigm is in talks with the US Commerce Department to invest $45 billion in a new chip plant on American soil, Bloomberg News reported.
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