Seoul:<Text>

SK hynix Inc. announced Thursday that its revenue and profits for the first quarter have reached unprecedented levels, fueled by a strong demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) and other memory products. The company's net profit soared to a record 40.34 trillion won (US$27.3 billion) during the January-March period, marking a 397.6 percent increase from the previous year, as detailed in its regulatory filing.

According to Yonhap News Agency, SK hynix's operating income also saw a significant rise, increasing by 405.5 percent year-on-year to a record 37.61 trillion won. The company's sales surged by 198.1 percent, reaching 52.57 trillion won. This marks the first occasion a South Korean chipmaker has recorded quarterly sales exceeding 50 trillion won, with all key financial metrics hitting record highs.

The company's earnings surpassed market expectations, with analysts forecasting a net profit of 31.95 trillion won, based on a survey conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data arm of Yonhap News Agency. SK hynix attributes its remarkable growth to the global price increase of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and the robust demand for high-end products in the AI server sector.

Despite typically being a seasonal downturn, the first quarter demonstrated strong demand due to expanded AI infrastructure investments, as explained by SK hynix in their release. The company reported a sustained upward performance trend by boosting sales of high-value-added products, including HBM, high-capacity server DRAM modules, and eSSDs.

SK hynix anticipates that global memory demand will continue to grow across DRAM and NAND flash as AI evolves from large model training to agentic AI, which performs real-time inference across various service environments. The company also highlighted that the spread of memory efficiency technologies will enhance the economic viability of AI services, thereby expanding the overall service scale an d driving further memory demand.

The company expects favorable pricing conditions to persist for both DRAM and NAND flash. To meet the rising demand, SK hynix plans to continue launching new products across both memory segments and increase investment in expanding infrastructure and equipment. This includes focusing on the ramp-up of the new M15X fab in Cheongju and infrastructure preparation for the Yongin cluster, both located south of Seoul.

SK hynix emphasized its commitment to securing a stable supply and maintaining robust financial conditions through strategic investments aligned with demand, aiming to proactively respond to long-term growth.