# SK Hynix Says Quarterly Revenue Topped 100 Trillion Won for the First Time, Expects Memory Demand to Outrun Supply Through 2030 and Ends Its Solidigm IPO Review

Times of AI Desk · 2026-10-28 · Industry

[https://timesof.ai/2026/10/sk-hynix-q3-record-revenue-100t-won-shareholder-returns](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/sk-hynix-q3-record-revenue-100t-won-shareholder-returns)

> SK Hynix reported preliminary third-quarter revenue of 104.6 trillion won and operating profit of 83.3 trillion won on October 28, which it calls all-time highs and which CNBC says beat LSEG analyst estimates. The company says it expects demand for memory to exceed supply through 2030, has long-term agreements covering more than half of its 2027–2028 capacity, plans about 100 trillion won of shareholder returns for 2026 and has discontinued its review of an IPO for its U.S. unit Solidigm.

SK Hynix's third quarter shows how much of the AI build-out is being paid for in memory: the company says revenue passed 100 trillion won in a quarter for the first time, and it expects demand to exceed supply for another four years. In preliminary results released on **October 28**, SK Hynix reported revenue of **104.6155 trillion won**, operating profit of **83.3338 trillion won**, an operating margin of 80%, and net profit of 39.7756 trillion won. It called them "all-time-high quarterly results in both revenue and operating profit."

## The quarter

Revenue rose 32% and operating profit 38% from the second quarter, the company says, and its results table shows increases of 328% and 632% from a year earlier. CNBC reports that both figures beat LSEG SmartEstimates of 98.34 trillion won in revenue and 76.72 trillion won in operating profit, and puts revenue at about $78.86 billion. SK Hynix shares rose more than 8% on October 28, against a 6.25% gain in the Kospi, according to CNBC.

SK Hynix says the quarter was driven in DRAM by a large rise in server DDR5 sales and by HBM4 shipments that "began in earnest," and in NAND by higher sales of 321-layer TLC eSSDs and other data-centre products. CNBC reports, from the earnings call, that DRAM average selling prices rose by a high-20s percentage from the second quarter and server DDR5 shipments by more than 40%.

## What the company expects

SK Hynix says it expects demand for memory to exceed supply through 2030, citing the technical difficulty of leading-edge processes and the long lead times for new fabs. It says it will ramp its M15X fab to maximum capacity by the end of the year to make more HBM4, and that it expects HBM4 to pass HBM3E in both shipments and revenue in the fourth quarter.

The company says it has signed long-term agreements with 14 major customers, including large cloud providers, covering more than 50% of its 2027–2028 production capacity, with terms that are typically five years. It also says it will "drastically expand investment next year," without giving a figure.

## Shareholder returns and Solidigm

SK Hynix says it will return about **100 trillion won** to shareholders for fiscal 2026: at least 30 trillion won in cash dividends and at least 60 trillion won in share buybacks and cancellations, including a 40 trillion won buyback announced in August that it says was completed last week. Its board approved a third-quarter dividend of 14 trillion won, or 20,000 won a share, half of it a special dividend from gains on its investment in Kioxia, and a further 20 trillion won buyback. Of that buyback, 10 trillion won of shares will be cancelled and about 10 trillion won will go to employee compensation, which the company excludes from its shareholder-return total.

The company also says it has discontinued its review of an IPO for Solidigm, its U.S. NAND unit, which [Reuters' sources had said in October](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/sk-hynix-us-licence-request-dalian-fab-solidigm) was weighing a listing as early as next year. Chief executive Kwak Noh-Jung said the IPO was meant to raise outside capital for Solidigm's production expansion, and that "after carefully considering recent financial market conditions and other factors, we concluded that proceeding at this time would not be the best way" to achieve that goal.

## Limits

- The results are preliminary, and SK Hynix says the information has not been independently verified.
- The demand outlook, the long-term agreement coverage and the investment plans are SK Hynix's own statements.
- The dollar conversion, the LSEG estimates, the share move and the price and shipment figures from the earnings call are as reported by CNBC.
- SK Hynix does not name the 14 customers with long-term agreements.

## Sources

- [SK hynix Newsroom: SK hynix Announces 3Q26 Financial Results (October 28, 2026)](https://news.skhynix.com/en/q3-2026-business-results/)
- [CNBC: SK Hynix shares soar over 8% as profit beats, chipmaker to return $25 billion to investors (October 28, 2026)](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/28/sk-hynix-third-quarter-profit.html)
- [Times of AI: SK Hynix Seeks US Licence for More Dalian Fab Equipment, Tying It to a US Plant, Sources Tell Reuters (October 15, 2026)](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/sk-hynix-us-licence-request-dalian-fab-solidigm)