Nvidia supplier SK Hynix quarterly earnings top estimates

South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday topped quarterly income and working revenue estimates, as demand for its excessive bandwidth reminiscence choices utilized in synthetic intelligence chipsets stayed sturdy.

Listed below are SK Hynix’s first-quarter outcomes versus LSEG SmartEstimates, that are weighted towards forecasts from analysts who’re extra persistently correct:

• Income: 17.64 trillion gained ($12.36 billion) vs. 17.26 trillion gained
• Working revenue: 7.44 trillion gained vs. 6.62 trillion gained

Income rose about 42% within the March quarter in contrast with the identical interval a yr earlier, whereas working revenue surged 158%, yr on yr.

On a quarter-on-quarter foundation, income dropped 11%, whereas working revenue fell 8% from a report excessive within the December quarter.

SK Hynix is a number one provider of dynamic random entry reminiscence — a sort of semiconductor reminiscence present in PCs, workstations and servers that’s used to retailer information and program code.

The corporate warned that macroeconomic uncertainties together with U.S. tariff coverage have created demand volatility that can affect the second half of the yr.

“While reciprocal tariff measures between some countries are currently suspended, there are growing concerns that tariff can be applied to semiconductor products,” an SK Hynix govt mentioned in a Thursday earnings name.

Nonetheless, the corporate expects a comparatively restricted affect from tariffs on its synthetic intelligence server demand. In the meantime, demand from client electronics similar to PCs and smartphones is predicted to learn from the launch of recent merchandise that characteristic AI functionalities this yr.

In its earnings launch, SK Hynix credited its first-quarter earnings to AI’s affect within the reminiscence market. It expects Huge Tech’s spending on AI to proceed with open-source AI mannequin choices and “sovereign AI projects” stocking reminiscence demand.

“With development cost decreasing, initiatives for AI development have surged, which has led to a sharp increase in demand,” an organization govt mentioned.

SK Hynix cited DeepSeek’s open-source R1 reasoning mannequin, which achieved aggressive efficiency with restricted {hardware} assets earlier this yr, for example of a catalyst for AI growth.

The corporate has benefitted from a growth in AI servers as a key provider of excessive bandwidth reminiscence, or HBM — a sort of DRAM utilized in synthetic intelligence servers — to purchasers such because the U.S. AI darling Nvidia. Micron Know-how and Samsung Electronics are the opposite gamers within the house.

SK Hynix forecast that its HBM income in 2025 will greater than double from final yr.

A report from Counterpoint Analysis earlier this month mentioned that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by income share within the first quarter.

This HBM energy helped it overtake Samsung within the general DRAM marketplace for the primary time ever, with a 36% world market share as in comparison with Samsung’s 34%, the report added.

“The announcement that our company ranked first in the DRAM market in Q1 2025 … reflects that our portfolio strategies that focused on highly profitable AI memory was well executed,” an SK Hynix consultant mentioned. 

MS Hwang, a analysis director at Counterpoint, specializing in reminiscence semiconductor analysis, informed CNBC that SK Hynix’s HBM dominance is predicted to persist by means of 2025, serving to gas its earnings progress.

SK Hynix additionally announced plans on Thursday to construct a brand new fabrication facility in Cheongju, South Korea, that can broaden its manufacturing of next-generation DRAM, together with HBM.  

Development of the fab is predicted to start on the finish of April with an intention to be accomplished for early mass manufacturing in November 2025. The corporate mentioned its whole funding within the new manufacturing base could be greater than 20 trillion gained over the long run.

Earlier this month, the South Korean authorities introduced a 33 trillion gained help bundle for its chips trade. This was greater than the 26 trillion it dedicated final yr because the trade faces the uncertainty posed by Washington’s world commerce tariffs. 

SK Hynix shares fell 1.4% in Asia.