SK Hynix’s record quarterly profit smashes forecasts, sees explosive memory chip demand

SEOUL: South Korea’s SK Hynix on Wednesday ⁠booked quarterly profit that more than doubled to a record, trouncing forecasts, and predicted that the boom in artificial intelligence would continue to spur explosive growth in memory chip demand.

The earnings beat plus the announcement of its biggest share cancellation ‌to date ‌helped propel shares in the Nvidia supplier 9% higher in after-hours trading.

Insatiable thirst for AI has lifted prices for both advanced and ‌conventional memory chips, and SK Hynix logged a 137% surge in operating profit to 19.2 trillion won ($13.5 billion) for the fourth quarter.