Samsung and SK hynix post record profits as AI memory runs short
Samsung reported KRW 107.4tn of quarterly operating profit and SK hynix a preliminary KRW 83.3tn; SK hynix said memory supply would fall short of demand through 2030.
- Money & business
- Compute & infrastructure
- Minor
The two largest memory makers reported third-quarter results within a day of each other, both describing demand from AI servers that they could not fully supply.
Samsung Electronics reported on 29 October consolidated revenue of KRW 195.3 trillion and operating profit of KRW 107.4 trillion. In its release it said this made it the first technology company to exceed KRW 100 trillion in quarterly operating profit. Its Device Solutions division, which includes semiconductors, accounted for KRW 106.5 trillion of that profit on KRW 147.1 trillion of revenue, while the Device eXperience division, which covers consumer devices, recorded an operating loss of KRW 0.8 trillion. Samsung said its memory business set records for revenue and profit “amid capacity constraints”, that it had “significantly scaled up” sales of HBM4, the latest generation of high-bandwidth memory used with AI accelerators, and that it expected AI infrastructure capital expenditure in 2027 to reach “a historic level”.
SK hynix reported on 28 October. Its preliminary results put revenue at KRW 104.6 trillion, up 328% on a year earlier and the first quarter above KRW 100 trillion, and operating profit at KRW 83.3 trillion, an 80% operating margin. The company said the review was not final and figures could change in audit. The Register’s report of the same day gave a higher profit of KRW 87.68 trillion; that figure does not match the company’s release, which this entry follows. SK hynix said it expected memory supply to stay below demand through 2030, citing the difficulty of leading-edge processes and long fab lead times, and that it had long-term supply agreements with 14 major customers covering more than half of its 2027 and 2028 capacity. It also said HBM4 should overtake the previous generation in shipments and revenue in the fourth quarter.
The Register quoted SK hynix’s chief financial officer, Kim Woo-hyun, as expecting PC and mobile shipments to fall because of memory prices and shortages. That is the same pressure that Microsoft had cited in April when it attributed part of a higher capex forecast to memory and storage prices. The profits show memory makers earning more on that demand, while the big-tech results of the same week showed what the buyers were paying.