SK Hynix logo at their headquarters in Silicon Valley (123rf)
SK hynix Inc. said Thursday its third-quarter sales and profit hit all-time highs on robust demand for its premium artificial intelligence memory chips.
The world's second-largest memory chipmaker posted a net income of 5.75 trillion won ($4.2 billion), shifting from a loss of 2.18 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating income for the July-September period was 7.02 trillion won, compared with a loss of 1.79 trillion won a year ago, while its sales shot up 93.8 percent on-year to 17.57 trillion won.
The operating profit was 3.2 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
Its quarterly revenue, operating income, and net income are all record highs for the quarter.
The third-quarter sales exceeded the previous record of 16.4 trillion won in the second quarter of this year. Its operating profit and net profit renewed the previous records of 6.47 trillion won and 4.69 trillion won, respectively, in the third quarter of 2018 during the semiconductor super boom.
SK hynix attributed the strong bottom line to demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products and embedded solid-state drives (eSSDs).
"The demand for AI memory continued to be strong centered on data center customers, and the company marked its highest revenue since its foundation by expanding sales of premium products, such as HBM and eSSD," SK hynix said.
The company said sales of HBM chips for the third quarter soared more than 70 percent from the previous quarter and 330 percent from the same period last year.
SK hynix is leading the global HBM market as it is one of the key suppliers to US AI giant Nvidia Corp., a major player in the AI semiconductor market with its graphics processing units.
The South Korean chipmaker was the first in the industry to deliver the eight-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia in March and began mass production of the world's first 12-stage HBM3E product last month.
SK hynix said it will continue to focus on profitability by increasing sales centered on high value-added products based on its world-leading technology in AI memory, while meeting the booming demand for AI chips.
The company is continuing the transition of its production capacity from existing HBM3 to eight-layer HBM3E products and will start supplying 12-layer HBM3E products in the fourth quarter.
As a result, SK hynix expects HBM sales, which accounted for 30 percent of SK hynix's total DRAM revenues in the third quarter, to reach 40 percent in the fourth quarter.
For NAND, the company plans to expand sales of high-capacity eSSD, which is rapidly increasing market demand, while focusing on investment efficiency and production optimization.
"SK hynix has solidified its position as the world's No. 1 AI memory company by achieving the highest business performance ever in the third quarter of this year," said Kim Woo-hyun, vice president and chief financial officer 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." (Yonhap)
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