SK Hynix topped 100 trillion won in quarterly sales for the first time. SK Hynix said on Tuesday it posted third-quarter revenue of 104.6 trillion won and operating profit of 83.3 trillion won. Revenue rose 327.9 percent from a year earlier and operating profit climbed 632.1 percent. The operating margin reached 80 percent.

Both revenue and operating profit were the highest quarterly results on record. Quarterly sales surpassed 100 trillion won for the first time. Compared with the previous quarter's revenue of 79.3 trillion won and operating profit of 60.5 trillion won, they rose 31.9 percent and 37.6 percent, respectively.

Cumulative revenue for the first three quarters totalled 236.5 trillion won, up 267.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. Cumulative operating profit was 181.5 trillion won, up 547.3 percent.

The gain in results came as key product prices rose on expanding demand for AI memory. In DRAM, shipments of HBM4 (high-bandwidth memory) moved into full swing and sales of server DDR5 jumped. In NAND, sales of 321-layer TLC eSSD (enterprise SSD) increased, the company said.

Net profit was 39.8 trillion won, down 57.7 percent from 93.9 trillion won in the previous quarter. It was affected by a 58.7 percent drop in income from continuing operations before income taxes to 50.7 trillion won from 122.7 trillion won in the previous quarter.

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the third quarter were 114.5 trillion won, up 26.5 trillion won from the end of the previous quarter. Borrowings fell 2.8 trillion won to 15.8 trillion won. Net cash expanded to 98.7 trillion won.

The company projected that through 2030 memory demand would continue to exceed supply. It cited the rising technical difficulty of advanced processes and the long time required to build new production facilities.

On the demand side, it pointed to a broader base of AI investors. It judged that the global AI data centre infrastructure market would grow steadily as AI investment expands from a handful of companies to general companies and on a national level.

To respond to supply shortages, it will maximise M15X production capacity by year-end to increase HBM4 output. In the fourth quarter, the company expected HBM4 to overtake HBM3E in both shipment volume and sales, becoming its main product.

For DRAM, it will raise the share of the 10-nanometre-class sixth-generation (1c) process and increase sales of DDR5 and LPDDR5 SOCAMM for AI servers. For NAND, it will lift the share of the 321-layer process to more than half of domestic production capacity in the fourth quarter to expand eSSD supply.

It is also expanding LTAs (long-term supply agreements) to improve mid- to long-term demand visibility. It signed contracts with 14 customers, including CSPs (cloud service providers), and the secured volume is more than 50 percent of total production capacity in 2027 to 2028.

Next year's investment scale is expected to increase sharply from this year. That is because infrastructure investment at home and abroad will become more active, including the full-scale operation of the first Yongin fab. It said it plans to adjust the scale and timing based on customer demand, profitability and investment efficiency.

This year's shareholder return totals about 100 trillion won. It includes more than 30 trillion won in cash dividends and more than 60 trillion won in share buybacks and cancellations, to fulfil its pledge to return more than 50 percent of FCF (free cash flow).

The third-quarter dividend per share is 20,000 won. It added a special dividend of 10,000 won to share gains from its Kioxia investment on top of 10,000 won reflecting improved results.

An SK Hynix official said, "We will continue to deliver stable performance based on solid growth in memory demand and technological competitiveness, and share it steadily with shareholders."