On January 29, 2021, a person walked previous the corporate’s brand within the foyer of SK hynix’s Bundang workplace in Seongnam.
Michelle Cheng | AFP | Getty Photos
SK Hynix, one of many world’s largest reminiscence chip makers, mentioned on Thursday that second-quarter revenue hit its highest degree in six years because it maintained its management in superior reminiscence chips important to synthetic intelligence computing.
This is how SK hynix’s second-quarter outcomes examine to the LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted primarily based on extra constant and correct analyst forecasts:
- revenue: 16.42 trillion gained (roughly US$11.86 billion), in contrast with 16.4 trillion gained
- working revenue: 5.47 trillion gained vs 5.4 trillion gained
June quarter working revenue hit the very best degree for the reason that second quarter of 2018, rising from the earlier quarter Loss of 2.88 trillion won The identical interval a 12 months in the past.
Income from April to June elevated 124.7% from 7.3 trillion gained a 12 months in the past. That is the very best quarterly income within the firm’s historical past, in response to LSEG knowledge relationship again to 2009.
SK hynix said on Thursday As a result of robust demand for synthetic intelligence reminiscence, together with high-bandwidth reminiscence, the general worth of its reminiscence merchandise continues to rise, leading to a quarterly income improve of 32%.
The South Korean large provides high-bandwidth reminiscence chips to firms together with synthetic intelligence chipsets Nvidia.
SK Hynix shares fell 7.81% on Thursday morning.
decline comes as South Korea Cospi Disappointing U.S. tech shares offered off in a single day, with index down 1.91% letter and Tesla revenue. The reviews mark buyers’ first take a look at how massive firms carried out within the second quarter.
“Robust demand for AI servers is anticipated to proceed within the second half of this 12 months with the launch of AI-enabled PCs and cellular gadgets, and conventional markets will regularly recuperate,” the corporate mentioned in an earnings name on Thursday.
Profiting from the robust demand for synthetic intelligence, SK hynix plans to “proceed to take care of its main place within the HBM market by way of mass manufacturing of 12-layer HBM3E merchandise.”
The corporate will Started mass production of 12-layer HBM3E Buyer shipments are anticipated within the fourth quarter after samples are supplied to key clients.
Provide is tight
Reminiscence leaders equivalent to SK Hynix have been actively increasing HBM manufacturing capability to fulfill the rising demand for synthetic intelligence processors.
HBM requires extra wafer capability than typical dynamic random entry reminiscence merchandise, a kind of pc reminiscence used to retailer knowledge, which SK Hynix mentioned can be dealing with provide constraints.
SK mentioned: “Funding demand can be rising with a purpose to meet the demand for conventional DRAM in addition to HBM. HBM requires extra wafer manufacturing capability than peculiar DRAM. Due to this fact, the capital expenditure degree this 12 months is anticipated to be increased than what we anticipated at the start of the 12 months.” Hynix .
“Whereas overcapacity is anticipated to extend subsequent 12 months resulting from elevated industrial funding, a big a part of it is going to be used to extend HBM manufacturing. Due to this fact, the tight provide scenario of conventional DRAM is prone to proceed.”
SK Kim of Daiwa Capital Markets mentioned in a report on June 12 that they anticipate “tight provide of HBM and reminiscence to proceed till 2025 resulting from bottlenecks in HBM manufacturing.”
“As such, we anticipate the favorable worth surroundings to proceed and SK hynix to profit from its competitiveness in AI graphics processing unit HBM and AI server high-density enterprise SSD (eSSD) to file robust gross sales in 2024-25 earnings, thereby driving a re-rating of the inventory,” King mentioned.
As large-scale language fashions equivalent to ChatGPT drive the explosive adoption of synthetic intelligence, the availability of high-bandwidth reminiscence chips is already stretched skinny.
Synthetic Intelligence increase anticipated to proceed The supply of high-end memory chips will be tight this year, analysts warned. SK Hynix and Micron mentioned in Could that that they had offered out of their high-bandwidth reminiscence chips for 2024 and that their 2025 inventories had been nearly offered out.
Massive language mannequin Requires large amounts of high-performance memory chips As a result of such chips enable these fashions to recollect particulars of previous conversations and person preferences with a purpose to produce human-like responses.
SK Hynix dominates the high-bandwidth reminiscence chip market, changing into Nvidia’s sole provider of HBM3 chips forward of its opponents Samsung reportedly passed the test In recognition of the usage of its HBM3 chips in Nvidia processors for the Chinese language market.
The corporate mentioned it expects to start transport the next-generation 12-layer HBM4 within the second half of 2025.
