SK Hynix achieved its highest-ever performance in the third quarter of 2025, driven by increasing demand for AI memory.

SK Hynix held an earnings conference on the 29th and announced its business performance for the third quarter of 2025.

On a consolidated basis, sales reached KRW 24.4489 trillion, a 39.1% increase year-on-year, and operating profit reached KRW 11.3834 trillion (operating profit margin of 47%), a 61.9% increase year-on-year. Net profit was KRW 12.5975 trillion (net profit margin of 52%), a 119% increase over the same period last year.

This is a result of increased sales of high-performance DRAM and NAND products, particularly the growing demand for memory for AI servers.

This performance was primarily driven by a surge in memory demand due to expanded investment in AI infrastructure and increased shipments of high-value-added products such as HBM3E 12-layer and server-grade DDR5.

In particular, high-capacity DDR5 of 128GB or more was shipped more than twice compared to the previous quarter, and the proportion of enterprise SSDs (eSSDs) for AI servers in NAND also increased, securing a price premium.

As of the end of the third quarter, SK Hynix's cash assets increased by KRW 10.9 trillion from the previous quarter to KRW 27.9 trillion, and its borrowings decreased by KRW 24.1 trillion, resulting in a net cash position of KRW 3.8 trillion.

This is evaluated as having laid a favorable foundation for future investment expansion based on a stable financial structure.

The company predicted that the AI market will rapidly shift to an inference-centric approach, leading to increased demand for diverse memory product lines, including high-performance DDR5 and eSSD.

Data center expansion and strategic partnerships among major AI companies are also creating a positive demand environment.

Accordingly, SK Hynix plans to accelerate its transition to the cutting-edge 10nm-class 6th generation (1c) process and expand supply by establishing a full lineup of DRAM products for servers, mobile devices, and graphics.

In the NAND sector, the strategy is to quickly respond to customer demands by increasing the supply of TLC and QLC products based on the world's highest 321-layer technology.

In particular, the company has completed all HBM supply negotiations for next year and will begin shipping HBM4 starting in the fourth quarter.

HBM4 meets customer performance requirements and industry It is prepared to support top speeds, and full-scale sales expansion is expected from next year.

SK Hynix announced that it has secured customer demand for all of its DRAM and NAND products until next year.

To expand production capacity, the Cheongju M15X clean room was opened early and equipment was brought in. Through this, the company plans to quickly secure new production capacity and accelerate the transition to advanced processes.

Next year's investment volume is expected to increase compared to this year, and we plan to maintain an optimized strategy tailored to market conditions.

SK Hynix Vice President (CFO) Woo-Hyun Kim stated, “AI technology innovation is shifting the memory market to a new paradigm,” and added, “We will solidify our leadership in AI memory based on our market-leading products and differentiated technological competitiveness.”