SK Hynix recorded its second-highest quarterly sales and operating profit ever in the first quarter of 2025, demonstrating its improved competitiveness compared to the past.

SK Hynix announced its provisional performance for the first quarter of 2025 on the 24th.

Based on consolidated financial statements, sales increased 41.9% year-on-year to KRW 17.6391 trillion, operating profit increased 157.8% year-on-year to KRW 7.4405 trillion (operating profit margin 42%), and net income for the period increased 323% year-on-year to KRW 8.1082 trillion (net profit margin 46%).

This quarter's sales and operating profit are the company's second-highest performances ever, following last quarter's record-breaking performance. Operating profit margin also improved by 1%p compared to the previous quarter, reaching 42%, continuing the improvement trend for eight consecutive quarters.

SK Hynix explained, “In the first quarter, the memory market showed improvement faster than expected due to the combination of AI development competition and inventory accumulation demand,” and “In response, we expanded sales of high value-added products such as HBM3E 12-layer and DDR5.”

He continued, “Despite the seasonal off-season, we have achieved results that demonstrate our competitiveness that is clearly different from the past,” and emphasized, “We will work even harder to improve our business structure so that we can achieve differentiated results even if the market enters a period of adjustment in the future.”

Thanks to this performance, the company's cash assets as of the end of the first quarter were 14.3 trillion won, an increase of 200 billion won from the end of last year. Accordingly, the borrowing and net borrowing ratios also improved to 29% and 11%, respectively.

SK Hynix said that as global uncertainty increases, the demand outlook is becoming more volatile, and it decided to strengthen cooperation within the supply chain to meet customer demands despite these environmental changes.

The company forecasted that HBM demand will continue to grow by approximately two times this year compared to the previous year, due to the nature of the product, which requires agreements with customers on supply volumes a year in advance. Accordingly, sales of HBM3E 12-layer are expected to expand smoothly, and the sales proportion of this product is expected to exceed half of total HBM3E sales in the second quarter.

In addition, we have supplied LPCAMM2, a high-performance memory module for AI PCs, to some PC customers since the first quarter of this year, and we plan to supply SOCAMM, a low-power DRAM module for AI servers, in close collaboration with customers when demand begins to increase in earnest.

In NAND, the company plans to actively respond to the demand for high-capacity eSSDs while maintaining a prudent investment approach and continuing to operate with a focus on profitability.

SK Hynix CFO Woo-Hyun Kim said, “We will further enhance investment efficiency by adhering to the ‘Capex Discipline’ and focusing on products with high demand visibility and secured profitability.” He added, “As a leader in AI memory, we will strengthen cooperation with partners, overcome technological limitations, and strive to continuously create profits based on our industry-leading competitiveness.”