SK Hynix Earnings Lift South Korea’s AI Trade

South Korea’s Kospi index closed 7% higher on Wednesday, extending gains of more than 3% on Tuesday, after SK Hynix reported record third-quarter results. Samsung Electronics rose 9% and SK Hynix rose 11%. The rally followed a turbulent year in which South Korean stocks swung amid the AI boom and concerns about the sustainability of heavy infrastructure spending. By Tuesday’s close, SK Hynix shares had fallen more than half from a June record high and were down nearly 25% that month. Sentiment rebounded this week, helped by Anthropic’s IPO filing and a renewed rally in US technology shares.

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, reported operating profit of 83.3 trillion won ($62 billion) for the third quarter, up 632% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 328% to a record 104.6 trillion won. The company attributed the results to surging demand for AI memory chips, including high-bandwidth memory used in AI infrastructure, and rising memory prices.

The company said planned dividends and share buybacks for this year now total approximately 100 trillion won ($75 billion), including buybacks announced earlier. Some shareholder returns are funded by gains from its investment in Japanese chipmaker Kioxia. SK Hynix also said long-term agreements with 14 major customers, including global cloud providers, cover more than half its production capacity for 2027 and 2028. CEO Kwak Noh-Jung said customer trust in the company’s technological competitiveness was leading to long-term contracts and greater earnings stability and visibility into medium- and long-term demand.

Samsung Electronics was scheduled to report full third-quarter results on Thursday, followed by Kioxia on Friday and China’s CXMT on Saturday, giving investors further information about the memory-chip market.

South Korea’s Kospi index closed 7% higher on Wednesday, extending gains of more than 3% on Tuesday, after SK Hynix reported record third-quarter results. Samsung Electronics rose 9% and SK Hynix rose 11%. The rally followed a turbulent year in which South Korean stocks swung amid the AI boom and concerns about the sustainability of heavy infrastructure spending. By Tuesday’s close, SK Hynix shares had fallen more than half from a June record high and were down nearly 25% that month. Sentiment rebounded this week, helped by Anthropic’s IPO filing and a renewed rally in US technology shares.

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, reported operating profit of 83.3 trillion won ($62 billion) for the third quarter, up 632% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 328% to a record 104.6 trillion won. The company attributed the results to surging demand for AI memory chips, including high-bandwidth memory used in AI infrastructure, and rising memory prices.

The company said planned dividends and share buybacks for this year now total approximately 100 trillion won ($75 billion), including buybacks announced earlier. Some shareholder returns are funded by gains from its investment in Japanese chipmaker Kioxia. SK Hynix also said long-term agreements with 14 major customers, including global cloud providers, cover more than half its production capacity for 2027 and 2028. CEO Kwak Noh-Jung said customer trust in the company’s technological competitiveness was leading to long-term contracts and greater earnings stability and visibility into medium- and long-term demand.

Samsung Electronics was scheduled to report full third-quarter results on Thursday, followed by Kioxia on Friday and China’s CXMT on Saturday, giving investors further information about the memory-chip market.