Illustration of the SK Hynix firm brand seen displayed on a smartphone display screen.
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South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday topped quarterly income and working revenue estimates, as demand for its excessive bandwidth reminiscence choices utilized in synthetic intelligence chipsets stayed sturdy.
Listed below are SK Hynix’s first-quarter outcomes versus LSEG SmartEstimates, that are weighted towards forecasts from analysts who’re extra constantly correct:
- Income: 17.64 trillion gained ($12.36 billion) vs. 17.26 trillion gained
- Working revenue: 7.44 trillion gained vs. 6.62 trillion gained
Income rose about 42% within the March quarter in contrast with the identical interval a yr earlier, whereas working revenue surged 158%, yr on yr.
On a quarter-on-quarter foundation, income dropped 11%, whereas working revenue fell 8% from a report excessive within the December quarter.
SK Hynix is a number one provider of dynamic random entry reminiscence — a sort of semiconductor reminiscence present in PCs, workstations and servers that’s used to retailer information and program code.
The corporate warned that macroeconomic uncertainties together with U.S. tariff coverage have created demand volatility that can impression the second half of the yr.
“Whereas reciprocal tariff measures between some international locations are at present suspended, there are rising considerations that tariff will be utilized to semiconductor merchandise,” an SK Hynix govt stated in a Thursday earnings name. The corporate expects a comparatively restricted impression from tariffs on its synthetic intelligence server demand.
In the meantime, demand from client electronics similar to PCs and smartphones is anticipated to learn from the launch of latest merchandise that function AI functionalities this yr.
In its earnings launch, SK Hynix stated that its first-quarter earnings demonstrated AI’s impression within the reminiscence market.
The reminiscence chipmaker expects Huge Tech’s spending on AI to proceed, with the ecosystem’s enlargement to be pushed by open-source AI mannequin choices, and “sovereign AI tasks” that can stoke reminiscence demand.
“With improvement price lowering, initiatives for AI improvement have surged, which has led to a pointy enhance in demand,” an organization govt stated.
SK Hynix cited DeepSeek’s open-source R1 reasoning mannequin, which achieved aggressive efficiency with restricted {hardware} sources earlier this yr, for instance of a catalyst for AI improvement.
The corporate has benefitted from a increase in AI servers as a key provider of excessive bandwidth reminiscence, or HBM — a sort of DRAM utilized in synthetic intelligence servers — to purchasers such because the U.S. AI darling Nvidia. Micron Expertise and Samsung Electronics are the opposite gamers within the house.
A report from Counterpoint Analysis earlier this month stated that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by income share within the first quarter.
This HBM dominance helped it overtake Samsung within the total DRAM marketplace for the primary time ever, with a 36% international market share as in comparison with Samsung’s 34%, the report added.
“The announcement that our firm ranked first within the DRAM market in Q1 2025 … displays that our portfolio methods that targeted on extremely worthwhile AI reminiscence was properly executed,” an SK Hynix consultant stated.
The corporate introduced plans on Thursday to construct a brand new fabrication facility in Cheongju, South Korea, that can develop its manufacturing of next-generation DRAM, together with HBM.
Building of the fab is anticipated to start on the finish of April with an purpose to be accomplished for early mass manufacturing in November 2025. The corporate stated its complete funding within the new manufacturing base could be greater than 20 trillion gained over the long run.
Earlier this month, the South Korean authorities introduced a 33 trillion gained help bundle for its chips trade. This was larger than the 26 trillion it dedicated final yr because the trade faces the uncertainty posed by Washington’s international commerce tariffs.
SK Hynix shares fell 0.9% in Asia.
