SK hynix (SKHY) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Date: January 29, 2026 | Source: StockAnalysis / SK hynix IR

---

Park Seong-hwan (Head of IR, SK hynix): Good morning, afternoon, and evening. This is Park Seong-hwan, Head of IR at SK hynix. Welcome to the SK hynix 2025 Q4 earnings release conference call. Today, we are joined by President of Corporate Center, Song Hyun-jong; Chief Financial Officer, Kim Woo-hyun; Head of DRAM Marketing, Park Jun-deok; Head of NAND Marketing, Song Chang-seok; and Head of HBM Sales and Marketing, Kim Ki-tae. Let me issue a disclaimer that all forward-looking statements presented by the company are subject to change, depending on the macroeconomic and market circumstances. With that, we will now begin the SK hynix earnings release conference call for the fourth quarter of 2025. Song Hyun-jong, President of Corporate Center, will first present the earnings, followed by the company's future plans and market outlook, and a Q&A session with the attending executives.

Song Hyun-jong (President, Corporate Center, SK hynix): Good morning, everyone. Allow me to first introduce the company's performance for the fourth quarter of 2025. During the fourth quarter, strong demand for memory products continued, driven by intensifying global investment in AI infrastructure. Demand increased significantly, not only for HBM, but also for conventional server memory. The pace of industry supply growth could not keep up with demand, leading to broad-based price increases and the formation of a highly favorable market environment. As prices for both DRAM and NAND rose sharply and NAND bit shipments increased, fourth quarter revenue reached KRW 32.8 trillion, up 34% QoQ and 66% YoY, thereby achieving the highest quarterly revenue.

DRAM shipments grew by low single-digit %, driven by increased sales of HBM3E 12-Hi products and DDR5 for servers. Shipments of high-density DDR5 modules increased by approximately 50% quarter-over-quarter, leading demand growth centered on AI and HPC. ASP rose 20% quarter-over-quarter, reflecting a significant increase in conventional DRAM prices. For NAND, with the base effect from lower shipments in the previous quarter, demand growth in mobile products and eSSD led to approximately 10% increase in shipments quarter-over-quarter, exceeding guidance. ASP also increased below 30% quarter-over-quarter as price increases accelerated.

Driven by substantial price increases, profitability improved for both DRAM and NAND. As a result, fourth quarter operating profit reached KRW 19.2 trillion, up 68% quarter-over-quarter and 137% year-over-year, marking a record high quarterly operating profit with an operating margin of 58%. Depreciation and amortization for Q4 was KRW 3.6 trillion. EBITDA amounted to KRW 22.7 trillion, with an EBITDA margin of 69%. Net non-operating loss reached KRW 1.5 trillion, including KRW 6.6 trillion in valuation gains on investment assets and KRW 8.4 trillion in loss on derivatives related to exchange rights on exchangeable bonds. Pre-tax income amounted to KRW 17.7 trillion. Net profit totaled KRW 15.2 trillion, and net profit margin was 46%.

Now, moving on to the annual performance for 2025. The year 2025 marked a fundamental shift in the structure of memory demand, driven by the broad adoption of AI. The memory market has moved beyond increasing content, with growing demand for a multidimensional performance that simultaneously meets requirements for speed, efficiency, and reliability. The company proactively strengthened its technological competitiveness with a focus on AI memory, while expanding the share of high-value-added products in the portfolio, successfully securing both profitability and growth. As a result, full year 2025 revenue reached KRW 97.1 trillion, and operating profit totaled KRW 47.2 trillion, representing YoY growth of 47% and 101%, respectively.

The year 2025 is also a milestone year in which the company once again demonstrated its world-class technological leadership. In DRAM, following world's first sample shipments of HBM4 to major customers in March last year, we were also the first in the world to secure mass production readiness in September, further solidifying our technology leadership in the AI memory market. HBM revenue more than doubled year-over-year, driven by a significant increase in HBM3E 12-Hi sales, and contributed to record high annual DRAM revenue and operating profit. In conventional DRAM, we commenced full-scale mass production of 1c-nanometer DDR5, which delivers industry-leading performance and cost competitiveness. Through the development of the industry's highest density, 256-gigabyte DDR5 RDIMM based on 1b-nanometer 32-gigabit die, we have further demonstrated our leadership in server modules.

In NAND, despite a challenging demand environment, we continued to strengthen our technology leadership, including the successful development of 321-layer QLC products in the first half of last year. In particular, by responding proactively to the recovery in enterprise SSD demand in the second half, we achieved record high annual NAND revenue. Cash and cash equivalents amounted to KRW 34.9 trillion at the end of 2025, an increase of KRW 20.8 trillion from the end of 2024, while borrowings decreased by KRW 0.4 trillion to reach KRW 22.2 trillion. The debt ratio declined significantly to 18%, and the company transitioned to a net cash position, resulting in a substantial improvement in our financial structure.

Now let me share our market outlook. AI models are rapidly transitioning to an inference-centric base, in which large volumes of user requests are processed in real-world service environments. Computing workloads are shifting from architectures with a focus on high-performance servers toward more distributed architectures. Accordingly, demand is expected to continue expanding not only for high-performance memory, but also across server DRAM and NAND. In particular, server SSD shipments are expected to grow by high teens % range in 2026, with solid growth anticipated over the mid- to long-term. A key driver of this growth is not only AI servers, but also the specification upgrades of general-purpose servers. As a result, demand for server DRAM and enterprise SSDs is expected to grow structurally at a pace well above the overall market growth.

PCs and mobile devices are expected to see short-term shipment adjustments due to rising component costs and weakened consumer sentiment. Memory content per device is expected to grow at a slower pace due to price increases and supply constraints. Despite the explosive increase in memory demand driven by the server market, demand growth for DRAM and NAND in 2026 is expected to remain at over 20% and high teens %, respectively.

Next, I will discuss the company's plans. Despite the first quarter generally being a weak season, customer demand remains strong. However, given constrained supply conditions, we plan to maintain DRAM shipments at a similar level to last quarter, while NAND shipments are expected to decline somewhat due to the base effect of the previous quarter. We are capable of supplying both HBM3E and HBM4 in a reliable manner, and through our technological leadership, proven quality, and mass production capabilities, we have earned strong customer trust. HBM4 is progressing under the same collaborative framework in line with the schedule agreed with our customers. After securing mass production readiness in September last year, we are currently in mass production of the volume requested by customers. Looking beyond HBM4, competition is expected to evolve beyond simple stacking toward custom HBM. We are actively engaging in custom HBM technology discussions with key customers.

For conventional DRAM, we plan to increase the production of high-value-added products while accelerating tech migration to the 1c nanometer process. We plan to expand our AI memory product portfolio, including CXL 2.0 and GDDR7. For NAND, we will maximize product competitiveness through the transition to 321-layer technology. In particular, through the development of next-generation 245-terabyte products, we aim to secure a leadership position in the ultra-high-density storage market, driven by the expansion of AI inference workloads. In 2026, CapEx is expected to increase considerably from last year, reflecting the expansion of production capacity and infrastructure. We will continue to adhere to our CapEx discipline based on a comprehensive assessment of demand visibility and investment efficiency. This year, we will ramp up M15X capacity earlier than planned, while accelerating tech migration to 1c-nanometer DRAM and 321-layer NAND. Over the mid- to long-term, we aim to rapidly expand our production base in Yongin Phase 1 Fab, while also proceeding without delay in the preparation of Cheongju M17 and the advanced packaging facility in Indiana.

Finally, let me explain shareholder returns for 2025. The company introduced a new shareholder return policy applicable from 2025, under which securing financial soundness was identified as our top priority. Based on the financial flexibility secured in 2025, the Board of Directors has resolved an additional shareholder return package. First, in addition to the fixed dividend, we will pay an additional cash dividend of KRW 1,500 per share. Accordingly, the year-end dividend per share will be KRW 1,875, and the total cash dividend per share for fiscal year 2025 will amount to KRW 3,000, with a total dividend payout of approximately KRW 2.1 trillion. Second, excluding the portion of treasury shares reserved for employee compensation, the company plans to retire all remaining 50 million treasury shares, equivalent to 2.1% of total shares outstanding, representing a value of approximately KRW 12.2 trillion based on the closing share price prior to the board meeting. The company remains committed to a disciplined capital allocation framework that seeks to maintain an optimal balance among future growth investments, financial stability, and shareholder returns.

Questions & Answers

Peter Lee (Analyst, Citigroup): Thank you very much. First of all, congratulations on the record high performance for the company. Now, my questions are pertaining to the HBM4. Recently, especially last month, there has been some noise about SK hynix's progress on HBM4. Can the company share your current status of the HBM4 development and the expected timing for mass production? And also, what are the plans to maintain HBM performance and mass production competitiveness?

Management (SK hynix): Thank you very much for your questions. SK hynix has been a leading pioneer in the HBM market since HBM2E, working together as one team with customers and infrastructure partners. It is not only about superior technology — our mass production experience and customer trust in our quality, built up over time, are not something that can be overtaken in a short period of time. For HBM4, customers and infrastructure partners show strong preference and expectations for our products, prioritizing our products over others. We aim to extend this to HBM4 to take up overwhelming market share, just as we did with HBM3 and HBM3E. Preparations for HBM4 are underway as planned, according to the timeline agreed with customers, and we are currently mass producing volumes requested by customers. SK hynix's HBM4 represents a major technical achievement that will enable customers' requirements based on the existing 1b nanometer process. Using our proprietary packaging technology, advanced MR-MUF, we plan to secure yield comparable to the 12-high HBM3E products. Even as we maximize production, we cannot meet HBM demand 100%, so some competition is expected to enter the market. Such developments notwithstanding, our market leadership and leading supplier position will continue based on performance, producibility, and quality.

Hyung Kyun Ryu (Analyst, Daishin Securities): Congratulations on the performance, and thank you for taking my question, which is about the LTA. With the continued growth of the market, there are talks of LTAs being reached. Can the company share an update about the LTAs that are underway for the year 2026? And how are the LTAs different from past LTAs?

Management (SK hynix): Please understand that I cannot divulge details about LTAs currently under discussion with our customers. But to your question on how the long-term supply agreements or LTAs are different today — as you know, LTAs already existed, but they were generally loose contracts on volumes and tended to be quite fluid, depending on market conditions. The LTAs being discussed today are expected to reflect strong mutual commitments between customers and suppliers, not simply indicating the intent to buy, because memory production today requires cutting-edge technology and far bigger investment, compelling suppliers to seek high visibility into demand. This is also why customers now prefer multi-year contracts, but capacity constraints make it difficult to accommodate all customer requests. Bearing this in mind, SK hynix will keep exploring ways to enhance both our customers' and our own long-term operational stability.

Dong Hee Han (SK Securities): Regarding the unprecedented surge in memory demand, some suggest that it could be driven by pull-in demand to secure inventory, but most see this as growth in real demand due to tight customer inventory. What is the customer's inventory level in key applications as seen by the company, and what is the company's own inventory status?

Management (SK hynix): As you would know, the memory market today is experiencing explosive demand growth, along with continued expansion in AI infrastructure investment. But supply cannot keep pace with demand, resulting in a severe supply-demand imbalance. Most customers are struggling to secure memory volumes and are persistently demanding increased supply. It appears that customer inventory levels have decreased overall. Server customers, in particular, as soon as they secure volume, move on to building sets, which apparently keeps driving down inventory. At the same time, PC and mobile customers are also experiencing supply constraints, as well as the direct and indirect impact from the strong server-side demand, and their inventories also continue to decline. For the company, even as we strive to increase production, DRAM inventory decreased in Q4 QoQ. The tight inventory trend, particularly for server DRAM, is expected to continue throughout the year. With memory selling out as soon as it is produced, our inventory is projected to decline even further in the second half of the year. NAND inventory is also observed to be falling rapidly among server customers. This trend of falling inventory is expected to continue, particularly for enterprise SSD products, with NAND inventory weeks at the end of last year nearly matching that of DRAM.

Simon Woo (Analyst, Bank of America): Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations on the record high performance. My question is pertaining to the company's plan on managing the tight capacity by customer or product. While the sharp rise in memory prices positively affects the company's performance, SK hynix's customers may be struggling to secure enough volume to sustain their operations. How does the company plan to manage both its existing and newly acquired capacity?

Management (SK hynix): It is true that the AI industry's explosive growth has brought unprecedented changes to the memory market. In particular, it has deepened the supply-demand imbalance, because while demand for AI memory has surged, ramping up supply takes time. At a time like this, we believe it is important to prioritize meeting customer needs and building trust in the market, not focusing solely on short-term results. That is why, although the space is limited, we are working to maximize production to accommodate the rapidly increasing demand. To meet HBM demand, we are adding new capacity for 1b nanometer at M15X, which was completed last year, while enhancing productivity through yield improvement. Not only that, to address demand for conventional DRAM and NAND, we are accelerating tech migration to 1c nanometer and 321-layer. As a memory leader, SK hynix remains committed to creating a sustainable semiconductor ecosystem where we grow together with our customers.

Sunwoo Kim (Meritz Securities): The company's performance is also expected to improve significantly this year. My questions are twofold. Are there any plans to continue with the extra dividends and share cancellations going forward? And second, the company recently canceled treasury shares — in order to further enhance shareholder value, are there plans to issue ADRs, and if yes, through what approach?

Management (SK hynix): As explained last quarter, the company's goal in achieving financial soundness is maintaining an adequate level of cash reserve that enables stable business operations even during industry fluctuations, and that also allows necessary CapEx to sustain competitiveness. Market conditions today point to continuing increase in the CapEx required to meet demand. Given the memory market's growth potential and high investment returns, our belief remains unchanged that reinvesting available funds into our business to enhance corporate value will be the best use of cash. Having said that, our financial soundness improved faster than expected at the time when we announced the current shareholder return policy. Leveraging the financial room secured last year, we are implementing additional shareholder return to show our appreciation for their support and to enhance shareholder value, and we plan to continue reviewing additional shareholder return measures and timing based on performance and cash flow at the time. Each method of shareholder return, be it dividend payout or share buyback, has different characteristics. While we maintain the current shareholder return policy, we will ensure flexibility in its administration to seek the best option at the given time that can meet market expectations. Meanwhile, as mentioned in yesterday's inquired disclosure, we are looking into various options to enhance corporate value. Nothing has been finalized to this date, and we plan to make careful decisions, comprehensively considering internal and external conditions.

SK Kim (Analyst, Daiwa Securities): Thank you for taking my question, and my question is pertaining to NAND Flash. We see that the AI storage market continues to grow. What is the company's outlook on the AI storage market down the road? And in the same context, what is the company's plan for response to this demand in NAND storage?

Management (SK hynix): NAND today is changing completely — not only a data store, but becoming a storage solution that directly supports AI computation workflows. As AI inference keeps advancing, GPU and CPU memory alone cannot satisfy all requirements, so the key-value cache offloading has become essential to ensure smooth inference services. As AI's data utilization becomes more precise and fast, it is driving a structural surge in demand for high-performance, high-capacity enterprise SSDs that can support high-speed data and I/O. What we are particularly interested in are the fundamental changes at the AI server architecture itself as a result of this. Whereas the SSD was a peripheral under the CPU-centric architecture, in the recent GPU-centric I/O server architecture, it is increasingly becoming a central part of the compute pipeline. To address these changes, we are developing next-generation storage products alongside our conventional storage lineup, based on which we intend to strengthen our competitiveness in the enterprise business. What we are preparing first is to develop the ultra-performance enterprise SSD. Demand is rising for storage with very fast I/O and ultra-low latency for real-time inference and GPU-based servers. We plan to secure technological leadership in the growing market by preparing for future technology with high IOPS SSD. We will further develop HBM4 technology, which is an extension of HBM, and expand our lineup of ultra-high-capacity enterprise SSDs that enable key-value cache and diverse data offloading to meet customer requirements and overcome data center power and space limits.

Rok-ho Kim (Researcher, Hana Securities): With the recent very strong demand for DRAM, especially from the server side, there is literally skyrocketing pricing, which is likely to heighten the burden on customers. If prices continue to rise, then the cost burden on PC and mobile customers could also grow. Are there any requests or demands to adjust the set shipment or to downgrade the content?

Management (SK hynix): Following the recent sharp rise in memory prices, some volume adjustments have appeared mainly among PC and mobile customers. This appears to be due to set manufacturers raising prices on finished products to defend their margin, which has temporarily dampened consumers' purchasing power. Some customers are becoming more conservative, revising their shipment plans or reviewing spec adjustments for price-sensitive, lower-tier products. Despite this, expectations for on-device AI are driving replacement demand, especially towards high-end products. As a result, it is not likely that the impact from the adjustments in PC or mobile shipments will spill over into a broader demand contraction. Not only that, over the longer term, as AI features keep improving, they will become part of the default spec, not just an option, which means there will be a structural increase in memory content per device, and this should partly offset the price-driven content adjustment. In this market environment, SK hynix will strive to ensure stable supply as much as possible within limited resources by reflecting customers' product strategies and changes in demand.

Min-Sook Chae (Researcher, Korea Investment & Securities): My question is with regard to the AI Company that has already been disclosed. The head office's CapEx size is also significantly increasing, and at this time, the company is also planning on a large-scale external investment. What are the benefits or synergies that the company is looking for in establishing the AI Company?

Management (SK hynix): As AI technology continues to advance, memory emerged as key in AI competition. It's no longer about improving individual chips' performance, but there is a full-fledged race to optimize system efficiency. As the market continues to change, SK hynix plans to become not only a component provider, but a partner in the AI data center ecosystem. That is part of the reason why we decided to set up an AI Co. as a way to proactively address the AI business environment and secure future growth engines. The AI Co. will be established in the U.S., the center of AI technology and market changes, and it will explore companies with key AI capabilities and discover and follow up on opportunities for commercializing AI solutions. For your information, the investment commitment in AI Co. is not large relative to our financial performance or cash generation capacity, and the investment will be dispersed sequentially once the investment decision is finalized. Based on our AI memory competitiveness and leveraging the AI Company, SK hynix will actively respond to global AI market changes, strengthen technological and business capabilities, and grow into a full-stack AI memory creator.

Young Ho Ryu (Head of Global Tech team, NH Investment & Securities): I would also like to congratulate the company on good performance, and thank you for taking my question, which is on CapEx. It was mentioned that the 2026 CapEx will increase significantly year-on-year. By how much exactly? And can the company maintain CapEx to revenue around the mid-30% level this year?

Management (SK hynix): As explained, the CapEx in 2026 is expected to increase significantly year-over-year due to capacity expansion, accelerated tech migration, and investments in future infrastructure. But at the same time, we will maintain CapEx discipline by monitoring market conditions and balancing demand visibility with investment efficiency. CapEx and sales are both expected to increase significantly, so it seems there will be no problem in complying with the mid-30% CapEx discipline that our company has presented. There will be an increase in CapEx, but we also expect revenue to grow substantially as well. We do not anticipate any difficulties in maintaining CapEx discipline at the mid-30% range. Incidentally, the investment in the AI Company discussed just now is not included in CapEx and therefore does not affect FCF calculation.

Surim Lee (Equity Research Analyst, DS Investment & Securities): Thank you very much for taking my question, which is on tariffs. The U.S. government recently talked of a 100% tariff on semiconductors if the fabs are not built in the U.S. What is the company's position and plan? And will there be a need for a plan to build additional fabs in the U.S.?

Management (SK hynix): Thank you for your question. Building fabs overseas involves numerous factors to be considered, both inside and outside of the company. For now, we will monitor the discussions between the governments and communicate the company's direction at a later date.

Operator: Thank you very much. With that, we conclude the SK hynix 2025 fourth quarter earnings release conference.