Overview
- SK Hynix shares climbed roughly 7% on Tuesday, pushing South Korea’s KOSPI over the 8,000 mark as investors repriced memory suppliers for stronger AI demand.
- The company reported Q1 revenue of 52.58 trillion won and operating profit of 37.61 trillion won, a 405% year‑on‑year jump and a 72% operating margin.
- SK Hynix said multi‑year customer requests for high‑bandwidth memory already exceed its current production capacity and unveiled iHBM, a thermal solution that cuts thermal resistance by about 30%.
- Market researcher TrendForce projects conventional DRAM contract prices could rise 58–63% quarter‑on‑quarter and NAND flash prices 70–75% in Q2 2026, a forecast that has helped fuel analyst upgrades.
- Analysts including UBS, Mirae Asset and SK Securities raised price targets and earnings forecasts, a shift that could lift chipmakers’ revenue while putting upward pressure on memory costs for data‑center buyers.