SK Hynix second-quarter revenue more than triples — but misses estimates
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- SK Hynix posted Q2 revenue of 79.32 trillion won ($54.55 billion), up 257% YoY and 51% QoQ, but missed the 84 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimates consensus.
- Operating profit hit 60.54 trillion won, soaring nearly 557% YoY and up 61% QoQ, yet fell short of the 64 trillion won estimate.
- SK Hynix crossed 100 trillion won in first-half cumulative revenue for the first time in company history, citing AI infrastructure investments and high-performance AI server pricing.
- HBM4 mass shipments began in Q2 with a second-half production ramp-up planned, while HBM4E sample shipments were completed in the first half of the year.
- NAND pricing rose QoQ alongside DRAM, with 321-layer products already capturing the largest share of total production and targeted at roughly 50% of domestic output by year-end.
- Nvidia remains a key client after the companies recently expanded their relationship through a multiyear deal worth over $500 billion.
Why it matters: Despite a 257% YoY revenue surge driven by AI infrastructure demand, SK Hynix missed both revenue and operating profit estimates — while HBM4 mass shipments just began and supply requests continue to mount. The gap signals that even the hottest AI memory supplier's extraordinary growth still fell short of the most accurate analysts' projections, underscoring how aggressively the sell side is modeling the AI memory cycle.
