SK hynix CEO urges growth beyond market leadership on AI boom

SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung said the company must focus on sustained innovation as AI-driven demand becomes a permanent feature of the market.

Kwak delivered these remarks in a New Year’s message to employees, following a record 2025 with cumulative revenue of 64.3 trillion won (US$44.5 billion) and operating profit of 28 trillion won (US$19.4 billion) through Q3.

SK hynix, a South Korea-based memory chip manufacturer, surpassed its previous annual profit record set in 2024.

Kwak noted that competition is intensifying in the AI sector, and called for faster development of advanced products and quicker adoption of AI technologies.

He also emphasized the importance of corporate culture, balancing bold decision-making with continuous self-assessment and collaboration within the group.

Kwak said the company’s long-term goal is to be a trusted partner for customers and to contribute to sustainable development, rather than just holding the top market position.

🔗 Source: The Korea Herald

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SK hynix’s 2026 High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) capacity expansion may not meet demand despite capex increases

SK hynix will lift 2026 capex about 30% to roughly 29 trillion won ($20.5 billion), as M15X (a new SK hynix semiconductor fabrication plant) starts mass output in 2026 and Yongin Factory 1 completes in Q2 2027 1 2. Analysts see Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) supply rising about 16% in 2026 as makers favor process upgrades and hybrid bonding (an advanced chip-to-chip stacking method) over new lines 3. High Bandwidth Memory stays tight through 2027 4. Contracted HBM3 is up about 15% in December 2025 and climbs in 2026, while HBM4 carries about a 50% premium 4. SK hynix plans first HBM4 shipments before year-end 2025 5. HBM4 needs about three times the wafer capacity per gigabyte versus Double Data Rate 5 (DDR5), and advanced packaging for stacking with logic stays booked through 2026 6.

AI infrastructure builders may need memory-efficient serving solutions as tight HBM supply persists

Project Stargate, a mega data center effort, directs 35% to 40% of global DRAM capacity to AI memory output 6. HBM revenue could rise from $35 billion in 2025 to about $100 billion in 2028 7. Platforms that cut HBM per query with quantization (using lower-precision numbers), key-value (KV) cache offload (moving attention-state memory to lower-cost memory), or compression can lower costs. SK hynix has booked all DRAM and NAND flash output for 2026 5. Server shipments should grow in the high teens in 2025, with momentum into 2026 7. Providers can plan launches while constraints last until new fab capacity (additional semiconductor manufacturing plants) comes online in 2027 or later 6.