SK hynix pushed back squarely against some market fears of a peak-out by announcing a record performance for the first quarter of 2026 with revenue of 5.2576 trillion won and operating profit of 3.761 trillion won.
On a conference call that day, the company stressed, "Although the first quarter is typically a seasonal off-peak period, strong demand driven by expanded AI infrastructure investment is offsetting it, and a tight supply run is continuing."
In particular, regarding the recent weakness in spot memory prices, it said, "This is not a signal of an industry peak-out but a temporary situation that emerged as some distribution channel inventory flowed into the market due to a rapid price increase," adding, "As the supply shortage continues, the price upcycle is likely to be longer than in the past."
On HBM4 (6th generation), the next flagship product, it said, "We are working closely with major customers from the early stages and planning to ramp volumes on an agreed schedule with products that meet the performance customers require."
The company also flaunted overwhelming market dominance, saying, "The demand customers are asking us to meet over the next three years already far exceeds our supply capacity." HBM4 is targeting mass production in 2027, with sample shipments planned for the second half, and the company intends to cement its technology leadership by applying a 1c-nanometer process that has proven industry-leading performance on the core die.
It also made clear its technological lead in the NAND market. SK hynix said, "In April this year, we developed the world's first 321-layer QLC and completed customer qualification, securing a significant technological lead," adding, "To maximize bit output, we plan to convert more than 50% of domestic production to 321 layers by the end of the year." It added in particular, "Through 321-layer-based products and expanded sales of enterprise SSDs, second-quarter NAND shipments will increase by the mid-10% range from the previous quarter."
The company also proactively addressed concerns that memory-efficiency technologies in the AI sector, such as Google TurboQuant, could dampen demand. "The core of this technology is not to use less memory, but to use the same memory more efficiently to handle longer context and more concurrent inference," it said, analyzing that "as AI services go mainstream, memory demand will increase instead."
It added, "As the AI inference market grows rapidly, memory is becoming tiered, and the likelihood is high that a hybrid architecture will take hold, with HBM-based GPUs handling complex and massive computation, so demand for high-performance memory will continue."
Regarding aggressive expansion of capital expenditures (CAPEX), it set a policy of "securing both supply stability and financial soundness by making investments in line with demand visibility." In particular, to proactively respond to medium- to long-term demand growth, it is accelerating infrastructure build-out, including deciding to move up the cleanroom opening for Phase 1 of the Yongin Cluster by three months to February 2027 from May. This year's investments are expected to increase significantly from last year to support the M15X ramp-up, prepare infrastructure in Yongin, and secure key equipment such as EUV.
It also expressed confidence in improving its financial structure. SK hynix said, "Given our profit-generating capability at an all-time high, achieving financial soundness with net cash of more than 100 trillion won and expanding shareholder returns are goals we can pursue in parallel," and promised, "Along with dividends, we will actively consider additional shareholder return measures such as share repurchases and cancellations and prepare an execution plan within the year." On its push to list American depositary receipts (ADR) in the United States, it said, "We have confidentially submitted a registration statement to the SEC and are pursuing a listing within the year, but details have not been finalized."