SK Hynix Posts the Biggest Quarter in Korean Corporate History — and Still Misses

SK Hynix on Tuesday reported the most profitable quarter in Korean corporate history — and still managed to disappoint the market's loftiest expectations, capping one of the most dramatic earnings setups Asia's chip sector has seen this cycle.

The company posted second-quarter revenue of 79.3 trillion won, up 257 percent from a year earlier, and operating profit of 60.5 trillion won, up 557 percent — an operating margin of roughly 76 percent, according to the company's results release. Cumulative first-half revenue crossed the 100 trillion won mark for the first time in the company's history.

But consensus had run even hotter. Analysts polled ahead of the report had penciled in roughly 84 trillion won in revenue and about 64 trillion won in operating profit, according to CNBC — meaning the largest quarterly profit ever recorded in Korea arrived as a technical miss on both lines.

AI memory does the heavy lifting

The record was powered by the same forces that have defined the past year: surging demand for high-bandwidth memory, AI-server DRAM and enterprise SSDs feeding hyperscale data centers. DRAM average selling prices rose roughly 30 percent quarter on quarter, while NAND prices jumped in the mid-50 percent range, according to figures circulated from the earnings release.

Long-term supply agreements now anchor the business, with ten customers signed to multi-year deals — a structural shift that the company argues converts the historically brutal memory cycle into something closer to contracted infrastructure revenue. Sales tied to large technology firms and AI data centers are expected to account for around 70 percent of revenue.

Notably, the company flagged that smartphone and PC memory sales were "temporarily adjusted" as customers struggled to secure volumes — a reminder that the AI buildout is squeezing every other buyer of memory on the planet.

Capex to the top of the range

Looking ahead, SK Hynix guided 2026 capital expenditure toward the upper end of its 40–50 trillion won range, prioritizing HBM capacity, and forecast full-year DRAM demand growth in the mid-20 percent range with NAND in the high teens.

The market's verdict was more forgiving than Monday's brutal 10 percent KOSPI rout suggested it might be. After an initial after-hours wobble on the miss, SK Hynix shares rose 3.74 percent to 1,608,000 won in Tuesday trading as investors concluded that a 76 percent-margin quarter with sold-out supply is a problem most companies would kill to have.

Still, the shortfall against estimates will sharpen the question hanging over the entire Asia AI trade: when a company delivers a 557 percent profit increase and the first reaction is disappointment, expectations — not earnings — have become the risk.