SK hynix significantly improved its financial soundness by repaying a substantial amount of borrowing funds thanks to a boom in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in the first half of this year. At the same time, sales exploded, especially among U.S. big tech companies, reaching 70% of total sales from the United States.
According to SK hynix's semi-annual report on the 17th, the balance of borrowing funds as of the end of the first half stood at 21.841 trillion won, a decrease of 13.4% compared to the same period last year (25.227 trillion won).
The borrowing funds, which reached 29.4686 trillion won in 2023, have steadily decreased from 22.6837 trillion won last year. Liquid assets also increased by more than 7 trillion won from a year ago to 16.9623 trillion won. An official from the company explained, "Cash flow improved as we recorded the highest quarterly performance in the second quarter thanks to expanded HBM sales."
In the first half of the year, SK hynix reported sales of 39.8711 trillion won and an operating profit of 16.6534 trillion won. HBM is said to account for more than 40% of total DRAM sales. Analysts foresee that this year's performance will comfortably surpass last year's record results (sales of 66.193 trillion won and operating profit of 23.4673 trillion won).
When examining revenue by region, the growth in the U.S. market is evident. In the first half of this year, sales to the U.S., including U.S. sales subsidiaries (to U.S. customers), amounted to 27.8344 trillion won, accounting for 69.8% of total sales (approximately 33.9 trillion won). The proportion of SK hynix's sales from the U.S. remained at 39% to 53% from 2020 to 2023, but increased by more than 6 percentage points in just one year from 63.4% last year.
Despite the improvement in performance, SK hynix expanded its investments. In the first half, research and development expenses reached 3.456 trillion won, exceeding 60% of last year's annual total. Capital expenditures also doubled compared to the same period last year, amounting to 11.249 trillion won. This is in response to the increasing demand for HBM to expand production capacity.
Choi Jun-yong, vice president of HBM business planning, said in a recent interview with Reuters, "The end-user demand for AI is very solid and strong," and predicted that the market for specialized memory such as HBM for AI will grow at an average annual rate of 30% until 2030. The industry expects that large-scale investments, including the Cheongju M15X and Yongin semiconductor cluster, will further increase.
SK hynix stated, "We will execute investments focusing on products with secured visibility and profitability, and we plan to expand investment scale to respond smoothly to HBM demand."