Nvidia supplier SK Hynix quarterly earnings top estimates

South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday exceeded expectations with its quarterly revenue and operating profit, driven by the strong demand for high bandwidth memory products used in AI chipsets.

Here are the first-quarter results of SK Hynix compared to LSEG SmartEstimates:

• Revenue: 17.64 trillion won ($12.36 billion) vs. 17.26 trillion won
• Operating profit: 7.44 trillion won vs. 6.62 trillion won

Revenue increased by 42% year-on-year in the March quarter, while operating profit surged by 158%.

However, there was a decrease in revenue by 11% and operating profit by 8% from the previous record high in the December quarter.

SK Hynix is a major provider of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) used in PCs, workstations, and servers for data and program storage.

The company highlighted macroeconomic uncertainties, including U.S. tariff policies, impacting demand volatility in the second half of the year.

SK Hynix emphasized the growing importance of AI in the memory market and expects continued investment from Big Tech in AI development.

Furthermore, the company mentioned the impact of open-source AI models and sovereign AI projects on memory demand.

SK Hynix’s leading position in high bandwidth memory for AI servers has contributed to its success, with a recent report stating its dominance in the HBM market.

Despite the positive results, SK Hynix shares experienced a slight decline in Asia.