SK Hynix has posted record revenues for Q3 2024, with its operating profit jumping 28.6 percent from the previous to hit $5.1 billion.
It is the highest quarterly operating profit ever recorded by the South Korean memory chip manufacturer.
Revenue also rose by seven percent to $12.8bn, another quarterly record for the company, beating revenues posted by the company in Q3 2018 which, in a statement, SK Hynix labeled “the semiconductor super boom.”
The company attributed the record-breaking results to the continuing demand for AI memory products from data center customers, with sales of its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) up more than 70 percent from the previous quarter and 330 percent from Q3 2023. Sales of HBM accounted for approximately 30 percent of total DRAM revenues during the quarter, a figure which is expected to rise to 40 percent in Q4 2024, when SK Hynix starts delivering its 12-layer HBM3E products.
The average selling price of both DRAM and NAND memory products has also increased, further contributing to the increase in SK Hynix’s operating profit during the quarter. The company further noted that the growing demand for memory for AI servers is a trend that it anticipates will continue into 2025.
“SK Hynix has solidified its position as the world’s number one AI memory company by achieving the highest business performance ever in the third quarter of this year,” said Kim Woohyun, VP and CFO at SK Hynix. “We will continue to maximize profitability while securing stable revenues by taking flexible product and supply strategies in line with market demand.”
SK Hynix’s record-breaking profits have come at the expense of its domestic competitor Samsung Electronics, whose vice chairman wrote a letter to Samsung’s customers, investors, and employees, apologizing for what the company believes is a disappointing set of preliminary Q3 2024 results.
Currently, market forecasts show that Samsung is around six months behind leaders SK Hynix in the HBM market, with Samsung having delayed its mass production schedule for HBM3e 12H – its higher capacity DRAM chips – from Q2 2024 to H2 2024.
