Seoul: South Korea's major chipmaker SK hynix Inc. paid the highest amount of corporate tax among local businesses in the first half of 2025 on the back of its robust earnings, data showed Tuesday. SK hynix, which recently enjoyed strong performance driven by booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, paid 2.7 trillion won (US$1.94 billion) in corporate tax during the period, according to its financial statement.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the amount is more than three times higher than that of Kia Corp., which came in second at 908 billion won. Hyundai Motor Co. followed with 822.2 billion won, while SK Inc., the holding firm of SK Group, paid 600.6 billion won.

In the second quarter, SK hynix saw its operating profit reach 9.21 trillion won, up 68.5 percent from a year ago, setting a new quarterly record. Global market research firm Omdia reported that SK hynix also accounted for 39.5 percent of the global market for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) in the second quarter, retaining the top spot after surpassing Samsung Electronics Co. in the previous quarter.