SK hynix reported third-quarter 2026 results on October 28, with revenue of 104.62 trillion won, the first quarter above 100 trillion won, and operating profit of 83.33 trillion won, according to The Korea Herald. The company says its DRAM and HBM output is sold out through 2029. Here is what the numbers show and where they need caution.
The headline numbers
Revenue rose 327.9% from a year earlier, operating profit rose 632.1% and beat market expectations of about 77 trillion won, and net profit was 39.78 trillion won. Operating margin reached a record 79.7%, up from 76.3% in the previous quarter. The Korea Herald attributes the growth to rising sales of HBM4 and server DDR5.
SK hynix, Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Trillion won. Year-ago bars are derived from the reported growth rates and rounded.
Operating margin: 76.3% in Q2 2026, 79.7% in Q3 2026 (reported).
The year-ago bars above are derived by dividing the reported figures by the reported growth multiples, so they are estimates rounded for illustration. The implication is that profit grew far faster than revenue, which is what a widening margin looks like.
HBM4 overtakes HBM3E
The company expects HBM4 to overtake HBM3E in both shipment volume and revenue in the fourth quarter, with higher prices and improving yields pushing HBM4 profitability well above previous cycle peaks next year, per The Korea Herald. It also says HBM4 and HBM3E yields exceeded targets. High-bandwidth memory is the stacked DRAM placed beside AI accelerators such as those from Nvidia, so a supplier's yield directly limits how many accelerators can ship.
Nvidia
Sold out, and customers want more
According to the same report, signed agreements cover more than 50% of production capacity for 2027 and 2028, customers are requesting more than twice the volume SK hynix can supply, and shortages are forecast through 2030. No specific capex figure was disclosed, though investment is expected to rise sharply next year as the first Yongin fab enters full-scale operation.
A caution on interpretation: "sold out" and demand of "more than twice" supply are company statements about order books, not audited volumes, and the company says it will adjust investment and output based on demand, profitability and investment efficiency. Rival supply is also moving. Our coverage of CXMT's memory ambitions and the broader memory price surge gives context on competing capacity.
Shareholder returns
SK hynix plans about 100 trillion won in total 2026 shareholder returns, including at least 30 trillion won of dividends and at least 60 trillion won of buybacks and cancellations, which includes a 40 trillion won program completed last week. The board approved a further 20 trillion won of buybacks, half to be cancelled and half for employee compensation. The Q3 dividend is 20,000 won per share, split equally between an earnings-based dividend and a special payout tied to Kioxia investment gains, and the stated policy is to return at least 50% of free cash flow. The planned Nasdaq listing of subsidiary Solidigm was shelved.
Customers are requesting more than twice the volume SK hynix can supply.
The Korea Herald, reporting SK hynix's earnings call
What to watch
- Memory as the AI bottleneck. If supply stays committed years ahead, memory availability could constrain accelerator shipments as much as logic chips do.
- Cost pass-through. Higher memory prices tend to feed into server and cloud pricing, which affects the cost of running models.
- Cycle risk. Memory has historically been cyclical. A 79.7% margin is an extreme point, and this report does not show whether it is durable.
- Practical takeaway. Model and compute costs can move for reasons far from software. Metir lets teams route work across several model providers, which helps when one provider's costs change.
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Image credits
Header and in-body image: SK Hynix DDR5 Tall MRDIMM by 4300streetcircus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (source).