SK Hynix shares tank as exponential earnings growth fails to satisfy AI-charged expectations — SkimNews
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- SK Hynix shares closed 9.6% lower on Wednesday after falling as much as 15% earlier in the session, with U.S.-listed shares down 3.4%, as Q2 revenue of 79.32 trillion won ($54.55 billion) and operating profit of 60.54 trillion won both missed LSEG SmartEstimates of 84 trillion won and 64 trillion won, respectively.
- Revenue still jumped 257% year-on-year and operating profit soared nearly 557%, with revenue rising 51% quarter-over-quarter and operating profit gaining 61% — making SK Hynix the first company in its history to post cumulative first-half revenue exceeding 100 trillion won.
- SK Hynix reported a record 83% gross margin and said HBM4 mass shipments began in Q2 with HBM4E sample shipments completed in H1, citing differentiated power efficiency and cost competitiveness in the high-bandwidth memory segment.
- Capital expenditures are guided to the high 40 trillion won range this year as the company builds on its Nasdaq-listed ADR introduced earlier this month, while expanding NAND with 321-layer products targeted to reach roughly 50% of domestic production capacity by year-end.
- Nvidia remains among SK Hynix's key clients under a multiyear supply deal worth over $500 billion, with both DRAM and NAND flash prices rising quarter-over-quarter on surging demand from AI servers and enterprise SSDs.
Why it matters: SK Hynix shares fell 9.6% despite 257% revenue growth, 557% operating profit growth, and a record 83% gross margin because the print missed LSEG SmartEstimates by roughly 4.7 trillion won in revenue and 3.5 trillion won in operating profit. The Nvidia-linked HBM supplier has now set a 100 trillion won first-half revenue record, raising the bar it must clear next quarter.
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