South Korea's SK Hynix reported a more than five-fold jump in first-quarter operating profit, reaching a record on Thursday. The surge is attributed to the booming artificial intelligence sector driving strong demand for both advanced and conventional memory chip products.
The company highlighted that the evolution of AI from large model training to agentic AI is expanding the foundation for memory demand across both DRAM and NAND flash.
Market tracker TrendForce data shows contract prices for certain DRAM chips increased by nearly 83% and NAND products by approximately 160% in the first quarter.
SK Hynix anticipates a favorable pricing environment to persist for the time being, as AI-driven demand counterbalances weaker demand from PC and smartphone sectors.
The Nvidia supplier posted a 37.6 trillion won ($25.42 billion) operating profit for the January-March period, a significant increase from 7.4 trillion won a year prior. Quarterly revenue also rose 198% to 52.6 trillion won.