As expectations grow that SK hynix, which is renewing its all-time-best results since its founding, will pay out a record bonus this year, a variety show featured a scene based on the topic.
On the 25th, episode 5 of SNL Korea season 8, released via the over-the-top (OTT) platform Coupang Play, featured a scene about an SK hynix employee.
In the scene, comedian Kim Kyu-won, acting as an SK hynix employee, visited a high-end clothing store wearing a shabby jumper. He told a store worker, "I came to try on clothes," but Jeong Yi-rang, playing the staffer, responded coldly, saying, "This isn't a place for someone like you to shop. It's a luxury store. If you're not buying, you can't try it on. We don't have your size."
However, when Kim Kyu-won took off the jumper, the vest he wore underneath had an SK hynix logo. Seeing this, Jeong Yi-rang immediately broke into a big smile, said, "Hynix deity?" and flipped her attitude.
It appears to satirize the recent online buzz around SK hynix employees' bonus outlook. With the semiconductor cycle improving and demand for artificial intelligence (AI) expanding, the company's results have surged, and the very fact of being an SK hynix employee is being consumed like a kind of "meme (online viral content)."
SK hynix is posting record results on the back of AI demand. In the first quarter of this year, SK hynix recorded revenue of 5.25763 trillion won and operating profit of 3.76103 trillion won. Compared with the same period a year earlier, revenue and operating profit rose 198% and 405%, respectively. Both revenue and operating profit were a record high on a quarterly basis. It is renewing record-high operating profit for the fourth consecutive quarter.
SK hynix operates a profit-sharing (PS) program funded with 10% of operating profit. With this year's annual operating profit projected to reach 250 trillion won, a simple calculation estimates the PS fund at 25 trillion won. Dividing by the roughly 35,000 employees yields projections that the average bonus per person would be about 700 million won.