SK Hynix Q1 Operating Profit Surges 406% to Record on AI Chip Demand

Gate News message, April 23 — SK Hynix, a major supplier to Nvidia, posted a record-breaking 406% jump in first-quarter operating profit on April 23, driven by surging demand for memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom.

The South Korean chipmaker reported 37.6 trillion won ($32.4 billion) in operating profit for the January-March period, compared to 7.4 trillion won a year earlier. Quarterly revenue surged 198% to 52.6 trillion won, in line with LSEG SmartEstimate's 37.9 trillion won forecast.

SK Hynix attributed the strong performance to AI's evolution from large model training to agentic AI systems, which perform real-time inference across various environments. This expansion is driving demand across both DRAM and NAND flash memory products.