Signage on the SK Hynix Inc. sales space on the China Worldwide Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. The expo runs via Nov. 10. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs
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South Korea’s SK Hynix on Wednesday reported document full-year revenue for 2025, greater than doubling its working earnings as shortages of AI-related reminiscence chips pushed costs greater and helped it beat market expectations.
The reminiscence chip maker additionally posted document income and revenue within the December quarter, because it competes with rival Samsung for the title of the world’s high reminiscence producer.
In the meantime, SK Hynix introduced extra dividends of 1 trillion gained, or 1,500 gained per share, lifting its whole dividend payout for fiscal 2025 to 2.1 trillion gained.
Listed below are the corporate’s quarterly outcomes versus LSEG SmartEstimates, that are weighted towards forecasts from analysts who’re extra persistently correct:
- Income: 32.827 trillion gained ($23 billion) vs. 32.132 trillion gained anticipated
- Working revenue: 19.17 trillion gained vs. 17.729 trillion gained anticipated
Income rose about 66% within the December quarter from a 12 months earlier, whereas working revenue surged 137% over the identical interval.
SK Hynix makes reminiscence chips used to retailer knowledge, that are present in every thing from servers to shopper gadgets resembling smartphones and laptops.
The corporate has benefited from a increase in synthetic intelligence as a key provider of high-bandwidth reminiscence, or HBM chips, used to energy AI knowledge heart servers.
HBM falls into the broader class of dynamic random entry reminiscence, or DRAM — a sort of semiconductor reminiscence used to retailer knowledge and program code that may be present in PCs, workstations and servers.
SK Hynix stated its HBM income greater than doubled in 2025. This helped it attain a document 97.147 trillion gained in income for the 12 months, up almost 50% from 2024. In the meantime, its annual working revenue reached 47.206 trillion gained, greater than double the earlier 12 months’s.
“We see SK Hynix as one of many largest AI winners in Asia, pushed by its management in HBM and powerful general reminiscence competitiveness,” stated Ray Wang, an analyst at SemiAnalysis targeted on reminiscence and the AI provide chain.
“Past HBM, commodity DRAM will likely be a important earnings driver this 12 months, supported by quickly increasing margins and demand stemming from a structural provide scarcity,” he added.
Demand for HBM has far outpaced provide, triggering shortages throughout the reminiscence sector, together with for much less superior reminiscence chips utilized in shopper electronics and electrical autos.
Because of this atmosphere, reminiscence costs have been surging, with shortages anticipated to final into subsequent 12 months as firms like SK Hynix watch for extra capability expansions to come back on-line.
The corporate additionally introduced on Wednesday plans to cancel treasury shares price 12.24 trillion gained, a transfer aimed toward boosting shareholder worth. The announcement adopted a surge within the reminiscence maker’s share value on Tuesday after native media reported that it had develop into the unique provider of superior reminiscence chips for a brand new AI processor developed by Microsoft.
SK Hynix will maintain an earnings name with traders on Thursday. Samsung, SK Hynix’s main competitor within the reminiscence market, together with HBM, can also be set to report earnings the identical day.
