SK hynix (HXSC.F) reported record revenue and operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 as the rapid development of AI infrastructure boosted demand for memory chips.
The South Korean company’s fourth quarter operating profit surged 137% year-over-year to 19.17T won. The figure surpassed average analysts’ estimate of 16.7T won, Bloomberg News reported.
“Growth momentum accelerated further in the fourth quarter. In addition to HBM, demand on conventional memory solutions for servers increased sharply, to which SK hynix responded proactively. As a result, the company achieved record-high quarterly performance across all three indicators, with revenue rising 34% to 32.8267 trillion won, operating profit surging 68% to 19.1696 trillion won, and operating margin reaching 58% quarter-on-quarter,” said the company in its earnings release on Wednesday.
The company’s fourth quarter revenue surged 66% year-over-year to 32.83T won.
SK hynix also said it saw record financial results in full year 2025 – 97.15T won in revenue, 47.21T won in operating profit, and 42.95T won in net profit.
The company noted that, in addition to high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, demand for conventional memory solutions for servers increased sharply, to which it responded proactively.
South Korean company SK hynix (HXSC.F) is a major supplier of HBM chips to Nvidia (NVDA) and competes with compatriot Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) and American company Micron Technology (MU).
SK hynix said that in the dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, segment, HBM revenue more than doubled year-on-year, making a significant contribution to the company’s record performance. Conventional DRAM entered full-scale mass production of the 1cnm process, or the sixth generation of the 10-nanometer technology.
The company noted that as the AI market shifts from training to inference while demand for distributed architectures expands, the role of memory will become increasingly critical. “Accordingly, not only demand for high-performance memory such as HBM is expected to grow continuously, but also for overall memory products including server DRAM and NAND as well,” the company added.
SK hynix said the construction of the advanced packaging facilities in Cheongju and Indiana is progressing smoothly.
Dividend and Buyback
The company said it will deliver an additional dividend of 1T won, equivalent to 1,500 won per share. Combined with the regular quarterly dividend of 375 won, the year-end dividend will total 1,875 won per share, bringing total dividends for full year 2025 to 3,000 won per share, or 2.1T won in aggregate.
SK hynix also plans to cancel 15.3M treasury shares (worth about 12.2T won) equivalent to 2.1% of total outstanding shares.
AI Company in US
SK hynix said it will establish an AI solutions firm, tentatively called AI Company (AI Co.), in the U.S. to find new AI growth engines.
SK hynix noted that it will commit $10B to AI Co., with the funds to be deployed by AI Co. on a capital-call basis.
“Leveraging its unparalleled chip technologies, such as HBM, the memory chipmaker will try to play a pivotal role in delivering optimized AI systems for its customers in the AI datacenter sector,” the company said in a separate press release on Wednesday.
SK hynix said it will establish AI Co. through the restructuring of Solidigm (SK hynix NAND Product Solutions Corp.), its California-based enterprise SSD manufacturing subsidiary.
In this process, Solidigm will maintain its entity under the name AI Co. while transferring its business operations to a new subsidiary, to be named Solidigm Inc., to ensure brand continuity.
The company added that AI Co. will serve as an AI-focused business arm, driving SK hynix’s AI strategy forward. The corporate name of AI Co. will be officially announced later this year.
SK hynix noted that it will continue making strategic investments and collaborating with AI firms to strengthen its competitiveness in memory chips and provide a range of AI datacenter solutions.
The company is considering investing in innovative companies in the U.S. and partnering with them through AI Co. to create synergy with the SK Group affiliates.