By Kwanwoo Jun


SK Hynix reported record quarterly and annual results after stronger-than-expected earnings for the final quarter of 2024, as it continued to benefit from robust chip demand amid the artificial-intelligence boom.

The South Korean memory-chip maker supplies advanced high-bandwidth-memory products to AI-chip giant Nvidia, and its market leadership has helped significantly boost profits over the past year thanks to brisk shipments of higher-end, premium HBM products.

Its stock has reflected that dominance. SK Hynix's share price has risen nearly 30% so far in January, adding to the more than 20% gain in 2024 thanks to investors' continued optimism about AI and the company's central role in the industry's HBM field.

The company on Thursday said its net profit, operating profit and revenue were all its best-ever quarterly and annual performances.

Net profit for the October-December period was 8.006 trillion won, equivalent to $5.57 billion, it said. That compared with a loss a year ago and was 39% higher than the prior quarter.

The result eclipsed analysts' estimates of 5.998 trillion won, according to a FactSet-compiled consensus.

Revenue soared 75% from a year earlier, to 19.767 trillion won, while operating profit came in at 8.083 trillion won, beating bigger Korean rival Samsung Electronics' operating profit estimate of 6.500 trillion won for the fourth quarter.

For the full year, the company reported net profit of 19.797 trillion won and operating profit of 23.467 trillion won as revenue doubled to 66.193 trillion won.

SK Hynix began mass producing advanced 12-layer HBM3E products last year, ahead of its industry rivals Micron Technology and Samsung.

The semiconductor industry is enjoying brisk demand for higher-end chips such as HBM products, which power data servers and AI applications, even as it grapples with sluggish demand for legacy chips used in personal computers and smartphones, Shinhan Securities analysts said in a recent research report.

"As demand for high-bandwidth-memory products expands, SK Hynix is expected to continue its competitive edge by taking the lead in the HBM3E 12-layer market," Shinhan said.

SK Hynix said Thursday that sales of HBM products increased more than four times in 2024, contributing significantly to the record performance of its DRAM business.

The company said its HBM products accounted for more than 40% of its DRAM revenue in the fourth quarter, up from around 30% in the third quarter, adding that it plans to expand its HBM3E supply and develop more advanced HBM4 products "in right time" to meet customers' needs.

It forecast demand for HBM products and other high-performance computing chips to continue to increase amid growing investments by big technology companies in AI servers.

SK Hynix raised its fixed annual dividend by 25% to 1,500 won a share and its total cash dividend to 1 trillion won annually.


Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-22-25 2108ET