SK hynix executed more than 6 trillion won in capital expenditures in the third quarter of this year. Analysts say the company ramped up equipment investment as demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) grew alongside the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment.
According to the quarterly report disclosed by SK hynix on the 14th, the company's cumulative facility investment through the third quarter came to 17.825 trillion won, up 6.576 trillion won from the first half (11.249 trillion won). That is an increase of 7.295 trillion won compared with the same period last year (10.53 trillion won).
The sharp increase in capital expenditures is seen as the result of SK hynix concentrating facility investment to respond to growing demand for AI memory such as HBM. In line with rising demand for advanced memory including HBM and DDR5, SK hynix is investing trillions of won in the M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, and in the Yongin cluster.
Research and development (R&D) expense was also tallied as having increased. SK hynix's third-quarter R&D expense was 4.6473 trillion won, more than 1 trillion won higher than the same period last year (3.5584 trillion won).