SK Hynix made 83.3 trillion won in operating profit last quarter. In dollars, that is $62.8 billion1. The number beat the same quarter a year ago by 632 percent2.
Revenue hit 104.6 trillion won, the first time the company's quarterly sales topped 100 trillion won1. Kwak Noh-Jung, SK Hynix's chief executive, has already put a date on the shortage behind those sales. "We still forecast that customer demand will remain higher than our supply capacity even beyond 2030," he said3.
The Margin Behind SK Hynix's Record Profit
SK Hynix's operating margin reached 80 percent last quarter, a company record1. That means 80 cents of every revenue dollar stayed in the business as profit.
SK Hynix keeps 80 cents of every revenue dollar as profit
SK Hynix's Q3 2026 revenue and operating profit, in billions of dollars
The first column is total revenue for the quarter; the second is how much of it stayed in profit after costs.
Source: Yahoo Finance [2]. Chart by Kelly Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $78.9B |
| Operating profit | $62.8B |
Profit climbed 38 percent from the second quarter alone1. Growth like that over three months is rare outside software.
Net profit reached 39.8 trillion won, more than triple the same period a year earlier2. SK Hynix plans close to 100 trillion won in dividends and buybacks this fiscal year, funded by the same quarter1.
Wall St Engine, a markets account on X, posted the full earnings breakdown within hours of the release. The chart lines up every figure in this story against Wall Street's own estimates, and SK Hynix beat each one.
Wall St Engine@wallstengineSK HYNIX $SKHY Q3’26 EARNINGS HIGHLIGHTS
🔹 Revenue: $78.9B (Est. $74.8B) 🟢; +328% YoY
🔹 Oper Profit: $62.8B (Est. $58.5B) 🟢; +632% YoY
🔹 Oper Margin: 80%; +3,300 bps YoY; record high
🔹 QoQ: Revenue +32% / Oper Profit +38%
Q4 Guide:
🔹 DRAM Bit Growth: Mid-20% QoQ
🔹 NAND… pic.twitter.com/GkVRgwt3L6
Nvidia Wants the Same Chips
HBM stands for high bandwidth memory. It stacks several chips into one tall block beside a processor. The stack feeds data to an AI chip far faster than ordinary memory does.
Nvidia builds HBM into its AI server chips. SK Hynix supplies much of that memory, alongside Samsung and Micron.
SK Hynix's newest version, HBM4, entered full production this quarter1. The company expects HBM4 to outsell its predecessor, HBM3E, by the fourth quarter.
The Company Bets the Shortage Runs Past 2030
Kwak already named his date: 2030. Other analysts land near the same number.
MS Hwang, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, reads SK Hynix's numbers the same way. "This indicates that quarterly earnings have not yet reached their peak and that the upward trajectory will likely sustain at least through 2027," Hwang said2.
SK Hynix locks in half its supply through 2028
Share of SK Hynix's 2027 and 2028 production capacity already committed under long-term deals with 14 customers
The colored slice is capacity already promised to customers through 2028; the gray slice is capacity still open.
Source: SK hynix [1]. Chart by Kelly Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Committed to 14 customers | 50% |
| Still open | 50% |
| Whole | 100% |
SK Hynix backs that forecast with signed contracts. The company locked in deals with 14 major customers, covering more than 50 percent of its 2027 and 2028 production capacity1. A company rarely locks in buyers years ahead unless the shortage behind the deal feels real.
Through July, the current upswing had already run 40 months. That beats the 29-month average for earlier memory cycles, the Korea Herald reported, citing analysts who track the sector6.
Other Analysts Expect New Factories to Flip the Script
Some analysts read the same chart and land somewhere else.
Jing Jie Yu, an equity analyst at Morningstar, expects new plants to change the picture within two years. "Our base case here is the fresh capacity in 2027 and 2028 coming up in earnest will improve supply dynamics, thereby leading to price erosion," Yu wrote3.
Lorraine Tan, a director at Morningstar, points to a shakier foundation under the AI spending that drives all this demand. "Despite accelerating artificial intelligence adoption, monetisation remains uncertain and profitability for key players, such as OpenAI, appears to be under pressure," Tan wrote3.
SK Hynix's answer sits in its own paperwork. Its long-term contracts already fix prices and volumes with 14 customers through 2028, the same years Yu expects new supply to land1. A fixed-price contract rides out a swing that would hit an open-market sale right away.
Governments Buy the Software This Chip Boom Feeds
Memory chips keep getting pricier. Government AI bills just got cheaper.
Anthropic and the General Services Administration expanded their OneGov agreement this week. The deal cuts Claude's price for federal, state and local agencies by 40 percent45.
About 500 U.S. government bodies already use Claude under the deal. Anthropic estimates the discount alone will save governments $1 billion5. GSA framed the renewal plainly. "As offers expire, GSA will renew agreements where appropriate and work to ensure continued access to critical tools while delivering the best value for taxpayers," the agency said4.
Put the two stories side by side and a pattern shows up. Chips cost more every quarter. Software built on those same chips, sold to the right buyer, can still get cheaper.
What to do
Budget for AI compute costs to keep climbing through 2027. SK Hynix's contracts already lock in tight supply for two more years. A cloud bill tied to GPU memory carries real room to rise.
Ask any vendor selling AI hardware or cloud capacity how its memory gets sourced. A long-term chip contract carries more weight than a quarterly promise right now.
Watch your own software budget for the opposite move. Anthropic cut its government price by 40 percent the same week chip costs climbed. Compute and software prices, it turns out, can swing in opposite directions at once.
By the numbers
- SK Hynix's operating profit jumped 632 percent in the third quarter of 2026 from a year earlier1.
- $62.8 billion: the quarter's operating profit, on revenue of $78.9 billion2.
- Eighty percent: the share of each revenue dollar SK Hynix kept as profit, a company record1.
- More than half of SK Hynix's 2027 and 2028 chip capacity is already committed to 14 customers1.
- Anthropic's expanded GSA deal cuts Claude's price by 40 percent for U.S. governments5.
- Forty months: how long the current memory chip upswing had run by July, past the 29-month average for earlier cycles6.
What to watch
Watch SK Hynix's January earnings call for whether fourth-quarter demand still outruns supply2. That is the test Hwang flagged for 2027. A cooling margin would side with Yu's forecast instead.
Samsung and Micron are the next tell. Rivals locking in customers through 2028 the way SK Hynix did would add a second vote to the shortage story.
A third signal sits inside government contracts. Other agencies following the General Services Administration's lead into steeper AI discounts would show compute and software prices moving apart for good.
Sources
- SK hynix, "SK hynix Announces 3Q26 Financial Results," SK hynix, Oct. 28, 2026, https://news.skhynix.com/en/q3-2026-business-results/
- AFP, "AI chip giant SK hynix says quarterly operating profit soars 630%," Yahoo Finance, Oct. 27, 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/ai-chip-giant-sk-hynix-003518443.html
- Jess Kinghorn, "SK Hynix CEO reckons the memory crisis will rage into 2030, but analysts aren't so sure," Yahoo Finance, July 13, 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/sk-hynix-ceo-reckons-memory-105512428.html
- Lindsey Wilkinson, "GSA expands OneGov agreement with Anthropic, touting steep discounts," FedScoop, Oct. 27, 2026, https://fedscoop.com/gsa-onegov-deal-claude-anthropic/
- Sophie Denar, "GSA Expands Anthropic OneGov Agreement with 40% Claude Discount," Unite.AI, Oct. 27, 2026, https://www.unite.ai/gsa-expands-anthropic-onegov-agreement-with-40-claude-discount/
- Jo He-rim, "Peak or supercycle? Chip outlook faces crucial test," The Korea Herald, July 13, 2026, https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10807214