SK Hynix Net Profit Soars 117% in 2025

On January 28, South Korea's memory giant SK Hynix released its financial report for fiscal year 2025 and the fourth quarter ending December 31. Fueled by a surge in AI-driven demand for memory chips since the second half of 2025, the company posted record-breaking results across multiple key metrics.

In Q4 2025, SK Hynix reported revenue of KRW 32.83 trillion, up 66% year-on-year and 34% from the previous quarter. Operating profit soared 137% to KRW 19.17 trillion, with a 68% quarterly increase. Operating margin reached 58%, rising 17 percentage points year-on-year and 11 points quarter-on-quarter, setting new single-quarter highs. The company highlighted strong growth across both high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and standard server memory, which contributed to the best quarterly performance in its history.

For the full fiscal year, revenue climbed 47% to KRW 97.15 trillion, while operating profit doubled to KRW 47.21 trillion. Net profit jumped 117% to KRW 42.95 trillion, pushing net margin to 44%. These results far surpassed the previous annual record set in 2024, with revenue increasing by over KRW 30 trillion and operating profit more than doubling.

In NAND flash, despite weak demand in the first half, SK Hynix completed development of 321-layer QLC products and leveraged enterprise SSD demand in the second half to achieve an annual revenue record. Looking ahead, the company expects memory demand to grow further as AI shifts from training to inference and distributed architectures expand. High-performance memory like HBM will see continued growth, alongside broader server DRAM and NAND requirements.

As the world's only company capable of consistently supplying both HBM3E and HBM4, SK Hynix is focusing on technology leadership, product reliability, and mass production capabilities. Since establishing the world's first HBM4 production system in September 2025, it is now meeting customer volume requirements and preparing for next-generation Custom HBM solutions.

For standard DRAM, SK Hynix plans to accelerate the transition to 1c DRAM processes and expand memory offerings for AI, including SOCAMM2 and GDDR7. In NAND, the company is maximizing competitiveness through 321-layer stacking and leveraging Solidigm QLC enterprise SSDs to address AI data center memory needs.

To address ongoing supply-demand imbalances, SK Hynix will prioritize customer demand while steadily expanding production capacity. This includes maximizing output at its Cheongju M15X fab, building the first factory in the Yongin cluster, and advancing operations at the Cheongju P&T7 and Indiana advanced packaging facilities to create a globally integrated manufacturing network.

Building on this record performance, SK Hynix announced a major shareholder return initiative. An extra dividend of KRW 1,500 per share, totaling KRW 1 trillion, will be added to the regular quarterly dividend, bringing the total year-end payout to KRW 1,875 per share. Overall, the 2025 fiscal year dividend reaches KRW 3,000 per share, totaling KRW 2.1 trillion. The company will also retire 15.3 million treasury shares, further enhancing per-share value and signaling its long-term commitment to shareholder returns.