At some point you’ve probably felt the way that SK hynix’ executives must feel today: that there’s something so wonderfully exciting that you absolutely must share it with everyone right away.
It appears to have been in this spirit that the company issued the press release for its fourth quarter earnings a full seventeen hours before their earnings call, where the norm is for the release to be provide only about one hour beforehand.
That release brags about the company’s stellar earnings. Revenues for the fourth quarter were $22.5 billion, with $13.2 billion of operating profit and $10.5 billion of net profit. That’s a 66% revenue increase from the final quarter of last year, with a 90% increase in net profit and a whopping 137% increase in operating profit.
Comparing the full 2025 year to 2024 we see a 47% revenue increase, with a 101% operating profit increase and a 117% increase in net profit.
There’s a lot for them to be thrilled about.
The graph below plots a 20-year history of the company’s quarterly revenues, converted to US dollars at contemporary exchange rates. Before the second quarter of 2024, quarterly revenues had never surpassed $11 billion. Last quarter they were a little more than double that figure.
Objective Analysis‘ clients will learn more about this after the earnings call, which starts in about an hour, and it’s clear that there will be a lot to tell. The company announced in its earnings press release that it would be boosting dividends and that it had cancelled 15.3 million treasury shares, effectively boosting the shareholders’ equity in the company.
Another announcement, also probably the result of the strong earnings, was that SK hynix will launch an AI-focused branch in the US based on its Solidigm SSD subsidiary, devoting $10 billion to its founding. This announcement was made less than two hours after the earnings release. Objective Analysis is already working to schedule a briefing.
All-in-all this is a strong testimonial to the benefit of a first-mover advantage, since SK hynix was the first to supply HBM at a time when its competitors considered the part a risky gamble. The company is now the preferred HBM supplier at all leading HBM customers, and has been able to grow at rocket speeds to become the world’s leading DRAM manufacturer as a result.
Those who want more information on our HBM coverage are welcome to contact Objective Analysis to discuss ways that we can work together to our mutual benefit.