SK Hynix Reports Record 2025 Profits on AI Demand

South Korea's SK Hynix reported record financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025 on Wednesday, propelled by surging demand for high-bandwidth memory chips essential to artificial intelligence applications. The memory chipmaker posted an operating profit of 19.2 trillion won ($13.5 billion) for the October-to-December period, more than doubling from 8.1 trillion won a year earlier and surpassing analyst expectations of 16.7 trillion won. Revenue for the quarter reached 32.8 trillion won, a 66 percent increase year over year that also exceeded forecasts of 32.1 trillion won.

For the entire year, SK Hynix achieved operating profit of 47.2 trillion won, more than twice the 2024 figure, alongside revenue of 97.1 trillion won, up nearly 50 percent from the previous year. These results marked the company's third straight quarter of record earnings and positioned it as South Korea's most profitable listed firm by operating income, surpassing Samsung Electronics' preliminary annual figure of 43.5 trillion won.

The performance stemmed from robust demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, which powers AI servers from major tech firms including Nvidia. HBM revenue more...