SK hynix Posts Record Q3: Operating Profit Up 557% to 83.33 Trillion Won

SK hynix reported operating profit of 83.33 trillion won (US$62.8 billion) for the July-September quarter, up 557.2 percent from a year earlier, in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. Revenue surged 327.9 percent on-year to 104.61 trillion won. Both figures are all-time quarterly records.

The South Korean chipmaker has now posted record quarterly revenue and operating profit for six consecutive quarters, a streak that began in the second quarter of last year. Net profit also hit a record 39.77 trillion won, up 215.7 percent from the same period in 2024.

The driver is high-bandwidth memory (HBM) — the stacked DRAM chips that feed data to AI accelerators — plus broader strength across the memory product line.

"Amid market conditions in which prices of key products rose on growing demand for artificial intelligence memory, the company once again achieved record quarterly revenue and operating profit, driven by its competitiveness in high-value-added products," SK hynix said in the filing.

"Building on these favorable conditions, we will accelerate efforts to expand production capacity and strengthen product competitiveness to sustain our current growth momentum," it added.

What does this change for shareholders?

Plenty. SK hynix announced an additional plan to return 60 trillion won to shareholders, unveiled alongside the earnings. The new program follows the completion last week of a previous 40 trillion-won shareholder return scheme.

The timing is not accidental. SK hynix shares have fallen nearly 30 percent over the three months since the company announced its second-quarter earnings, despite the record results — a slide that sharpens the case for cash returns to investors.

The shareholder package also lands days after a contentious strategic reversal.

Why the Solidigm listing was shelved

On Friday, SK hynix suspended plans to list its U.S. subsidiary Solidigm, citing market conditions. Solidigm, the NAND flash (storage memory) business SK hynix acquired from Intel, had been reported to be weighing a U.S. initial public offering as early as next year, with a potential valuation of up to $150 billion.

The decision followed strong shareholder opposition and regulatory scrutiny. Critics argued a separate listing could undermine the interests of minority shareholders in the parent company.

The about-face removes one overhang from the stock while concentrating the group's memory ambitions under the listed parent.

The numbers at a glance

• Operating profit: 83.33 trillion won, up 557.2 percent year-on-year
• Revenue: 104.61 trillion won, up 327.9 percent year-on-year
• Net profit: 39.77 trillion won, up 215.7 percent year-on-year
• Shareholder returns: 60 trillion won added on top of a 40 trillion-won program completed last week
• Share price: down nearly 30 percent in the three months since Q2 earnings
• Solidigm: IPO plan suspended; the unit had been discussed at up to a $150 billion valuation

Six consecutive record quarters, and management says capacity expansion is coming next. The question for the market is whether the AI memory supercycle outlasts the stock's three-month slide.