# SK Hynix
> South Korea's second-largest chipmaker and the world's dominant high-bandwidth memory supplier, whose HBM allocation decisions shape the pace of global AI hardware deployment.

**Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads:  · 3 takes · 1 lenses · 1 regions

## What it is

SK Hynix (SK하이닉스, KRX: 000660) is a South Korean semiconductor company headquartered in Icheon, South Korea, and a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Group, the country's third-largest chaebol. It is the world's second-largest DRAM maker by market share, holding roughly 33% of global DRAM supply as of 2024, and the dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the stacked-chip architecture that connects memory to AI accelerators in data-centre servers. Its HBM products run in Nvidia's H100, H200, Blackwell, and Vera Rubin GPU systems. SK Hynix employs approximately 46,863 people (as of 2024) and manufactures at fabs in Icheon and Cheongju, South Korea, and in Wuxi, China.

## History

Hyundai Group founded the company as Hyundai Electronics in 1983, part of a South Korean government-led campaign to build a domestic semiconductor industry. It produced the country's first 16-kilobit SRAM in 1984 and mass-produced its first 64-kilobit DRAM in 1985. By 1992 it was the world's ninth-largest DRAM manufacturer. A severe industry downturn in 2001 forced a creditor-led restructuring; the company rebranded as Hynix Semiconductor, a portmanteau of "high" and "electronics," and operated independently for a decade. SK Group acquired Hynix in February 2012 for US$3 billion and renamed it SK Hynix. A pivotal technical milestone followed in 2013: SK Hynix developed the world's first through-silicon-via (TSV)-based HBM, the stacking architecture now standard on every AI server GPU. Successive generations followed, HBM2 (2016), HBM2E, HBM3 (developed October 2021, mass production June 2022), and HBM3E (developed August 2023, mass production May 2024).

## Current state

SK Hynix posted record results across 2025. Full-year revenue reached KRW 97.1 trillion (roughly US$70 billion), operating profit KRW 47.2 trillion (a 49% margin), and net profit KRW 42.9 trillion, with HBM revenue more than doubling year-on-year. In Q1 2026, quarterly revenue exceeded KRW 50 trillion for the first time, reaching KRW 52.6 trillion, with an operating margin of 72%. The company holds an estimated 60-70% of [Nvidia's Vera Rubin HBM4 allocation](/ar/n/nvidia-vera-rubin-hbm4-allocation), placing it at the centre of the AI memory supply chain. It completed mass production preparation for HBM4 in September 2025, which it described as an industry first. On June 22, 2026, SK Hynix surpassed Samsung Electronics in South Korean market capitalisation for the first time in 26 years, a milestone reflecting the market's view that its HBM advantage has become structurally durable. Advanced packaging techniques, including those covered in [الركائز الزجاجية تحقق اختراقاً مع اصطدام تغليف الذكاء الاصطناعي بجدار المواد العضوية](/ar/n/glass-substrate-packaging-2026), are a key watch item for the next product generation.

## Relationships

SK Hynix is Nvidia's primary memory supplier and holds the dominant HBM allocation share on every major Nvidia GPU platform from H100 through Vera Rubin. Its relationship with Samsung is simultaneously competitive and co-defining: both companies are central to [South Korea's landmark domestic AI investment announcement](/ar/n/samsung-sk-hynix-ai-spending-2026) at the Blue House on June 30, 2026, and both are named in the [Chinese antitrust investigation into DRAM pricing](/ar/n/china-dram-antitrust-probe-2026) alongside Micron, which carries potential fines of up to US$2.5 billion. The tight supply of DRAM for AI servers contributed directly to the [price increases Apple applied to iPhone models](/ar/n/apple-price-hike-memory-jun25) using LPDDR DRAM, a segment where SK Hynix is a major supplier. SK Hynix shares carry significant KOSPI index weight, making its results a driver of South Korean equity benchmarks, as seen during the [June 2026 KOSPI circuit breaker event](/ar/n/kospi-circuit-breaker-jun26).

## What to watch

- Whether SK Hynix maintains its HBM4 allocation lead as Samsung delivers HBM4E samples and both companies develop HBM5 on 2nm base-die architectures
- Resolution of the Chinese DRAM antitrust probe and any resulting fines or supply restrictions affecting China-market pricing
- Execution of the KRW 45.5 trillion South Korean capital expenditure plan through 2030, including the M15X fab in Cheongju
- LPDDR6 and SOCAMM2 ramps for on-device AI inference, where SK Hynix competes with Samsung for design wins at Apple and Qualcomm
- US export control policy on HBM exports, given SK Hynix's dependence on Nvidia as the dominant customer

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### official record
- **SK hynix Newsroom Fact Sheet** (south-korea, en) — Corporate fact sheet documenting product lines, HBM milestone timeline from HBM3 development in October 2021 through first HBM4 samples in March 2025, 46,863 employees, and Icheon headquarters.
  Source: https://news.skhynix.com/corporate/fact-sheet/
- **SK hynix FY2025 Annual Financial Results** (south-korea, en) — Official press release for full-year 2025 results: KRW 97.1 trillion revenue and KRW 47.2 trillion operating profit (49% margin), with HBM revenue more than doubling year-on-year, the company's highest annual performance on record.
  Source: https://news.skhynix.com/sk-hynix-announces-fy25-financial-results/
- **SK hynix Q1 2026 Financial Results** (south-korea, en) — Official Q1 2026 earnings release: KRW 52.6 trillion revenue (first quarter above 50 trillion won), 72% operating margin, a new quarterly record driven by AI infrastructure spending and premium HBM sales.
  Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sk-hynix-announces-1q26-financial-results-302750959.html

## Across the graph
- Related: [[samsung-sk-hynix-ai-spending-2026]], [[kospi-circuit-breaker-jun26]], [[kospi-nikkei-milestone-jun25]], [[apple-price-hike-memory-jun25]], [[china-dram-antitrust-probe-2026]], [[nvidia-vera-rubin-hbm4-allocation]], [[glass-substrate-packaging-2026]]
- Entities: Corporate:sk Hynix, South Korea, Corporate:nvidia, Corporate:samsung, Hbm

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Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ar/n/sk-hynix-dossier