SK hynix posts record quarterly profit on HBM demand but misses estimates

SK hynix reported an all-time-high quarterly operating profit of 60.5 trillion won on surging demand for high-bandwidth memory, yet its shares fell after the results missed analyst estimates. The South Korean chipmaker said July 29, 2026 that second-quarter revenue reached 79.3 trillion won at a 76% operating margin, with operating profit up 557% from a year earlier.

High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is the stacked DRAM that feeds AI accelerators such as NVIDIA’s, and it has turned SK hynix into one of the biggest winners of the AI buildout. First-half revenue topped 100 trillion won for the first time in company history, and SK hynix said it began mass shipments of its next-generation HBM4 in the quarter, with a bigger ramp planned for the second half.

The market reaction was harsh anyway. Shares fell roughly 9%, with the Seoul listing down about 15% amid a broader market selloff, as the numbers came in under expectations for both operating profit and revenue. The miss traces partly to slower quarter-on-quarter price gains in commodity DRAM and NAND memory and to expectations that had run well ahead of even record results.

Record earnings that still disappoint show how high expectations for AI-memory suppliers have climbed. SK hynix said it has finalized long-term supply agreements with about 10 major customers, which should smooth revenue but also locks in volumes.

Whether HBM4 shipments accelerate in the second half as promised, or slip again, is the number that will move the stock next.